When you think of George Soros the hedge fund manager, you think of someone who makes large, high-profile bets on the direction of currencies, credit markets and commodities. Or someone who throws his liberal weight around far left politicians’ causes. So, it is sort of surprising to see in Soros’ most recent quarterly SEC filing that he has holdings in a handful of relatively small money management firms — mostly hedge funds — some of them recent start-ups.
Interestingly, while a number of hedge fund managers farm out money to third parties, Soros is the only one to report it publicly, something he has done for years. In the first quarter, he had investments with nine outside managers, two of which were added during the period. Virtually none of the nine managers are recognizable names, except, perhaps, Atlantic Investment Management, Inc., the New York City hedge fund run by Alexander Roepers, with $1.5 billion under management. Otherwise, you almost need to be a friend, family member or prime broker to have heard of this group.
The two newest additions: Realm Partners LLC and Round Table Investment Management Company, LP. Never heard of them? That’s all right. Neither have I. Realm, based in New York City, has only filed a 13F with the SEC for the past two quarters, reporting $545 million in equity assets in 38 different names at the end of the first quarter, double the total on December 31. A spokesperson would not comment about the firm or confirm basic facts.
Soros’ other new holding is Charlotte, NC-based Round Table Investment Management. It was founded a little more than three years ago by former Bank of America Corp. (BAC) chief investment officer Ian G. Banwell, whose background is in global macro and mortgages.
BAC initially had a small stake in the firm, but last year Banwell bought out the bank’s interest as well as the stakes of his initial partners. Harvard Management, however, is an investor and has a profits interest. Banwell had joined BAC in 1998 and became CIO in 2000. He also served as chairman of the bank’s Asset-Liability Committee and its Equity Risk Forum.
Banwell describes himself as a discreet global macro manager. Altogether, he runs $350 million in co-mingled and managed accounts. He has two basic products — a macro fund and a long-biased distressed fund that concentrates on the top end of the capital structure. His macro fund was up 2 percent in May going long interest rates in the US and Europe and shorting the Euro. He had small losses in commodities; he was wrong on energy but did well with gold.
Soros’ other hedge fund holdings include: Discovery Capital Management, LLC, EAC Management LP, Martin Currie Investment Management Ltd., RR Partners LP, Select Equity Group and Sirios Capital Management, L.P.
Stephen Taub, who has covered the hedge fund industry for 30 years, is a contributing editor to Institutional Investor and Absolute Return-Alpha magazines.
