Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp. is shutting down its $300 million Tudor Futures Fund, according to CNBC. The first fund launched by the Greenwich, Connecticut firm in 1984 was said to have never suffered a losing year, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter. “The fund size is modest, relative to the support required for its operation,” CNBC reporter Kate Kelly tweeted, quoting the hedge fund firm’s letter to investors. However, the firm, which manages about $12 billion, will still manage its flagship Tudor BVI Global fund, which is up about 3.40 percent through December 26, according to an industry performance report.
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Macro manager Robert Citrone, the founder of South Norwalk, Connecticut-based Discovery Capital Management, is bullish on the stock market for 2015. In his most recent weekly e-mail missive to investors, the Tiger Cub says stock markets are now trading “with a very subdued sentiment” even though they are straddling all-time highs.
“We believe the risk/reward for higher equity markets in the first two months of the year is quite positive,” he states in the e-mail to investors in his Discovery Global Opportunity Fund. “With global yields at or near record lows for most countries, and oil prices down over 40 percent, global growth is likely to accelerate from 2014 levels. This acceleration will be modest, but will drive earnings and risk premiums while inflation should remain low.”
Citrone is looking for another low double-digit gain for the S&P this year, a stronger U.S. economy “and modestly higher interest rates” in the U.S. and a few emerging markets countries. Through December 26, Discovery Global Opportunity Fund was down 3.6 percent, while the firm’s Discovery Global Macro Fund was down 8.54 percent, according to a document from investment bank HSBC that tracks hedge fund performance.
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Daniel Och’s Och-Ziff Capital Management Group said in a regulatory filing that assets under management declined by $1.1 billion in the one month since December 1, to $46 billion. The asset estimate includes performance for the month ending December 31 and capital flows from December 2 through January 1. Performance at its main multi-strategy funds clearly did not account for the decline. In December, the New York firm’s OZ Master Fund rose 0.32 percent and finished the year up 5.54 percent. Its OZ Asia Master Fund rose 2.33 percent in December and gained 4.12 percent last year, while the OZ Europe Master Fund climbed 0.52 percent for the month and 1.81 percent for the year.
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William Ackman’s New York-based Pershing Square Capital Management disclosed that it owns more than 38 million shares of Restaurant Brands International, or 18.3 percent of the total outstanding. The stake was disclosed in a 13G filing, meaning that the investment is passive…at least for now. Restaurant Brands is the name of the company that resulted from the December merger of Burger King Worldwide, previously a major Pershing Square holding, and Tim Hortons.
Meanwhile, shares of Ackman’s high profile short position, Herbalife, plunged more than 12 percent to $33 on Monday after Internet chatter that the multi-level marketer of nutrition supplements may report disappointing sales. The stock more than halved last year.
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Thomas Gilbert Jr., 30, was formally charged with the murder of his father, Thomas Gilbert Sr., who was found shot to death in his Manhattan home on Sunday. The elder Gilbert was president of Wainscott Capital Partners, which billed itself as a long-short equity hedge fund, according to published reports. Law enforcement officials said Gilbert’s death was “a staged suicide.” The elder Gilbert recently discussed no longer paying his son’s rent and cutting his weekly allowance from $400 to $300, according to the report.
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Two of Marko Dimitrijevic’s Everest Capital funds enjoyed a strong year in 2014. The Miami firm’s Everest Capital Global fund gained 1 percent in December and 14.7 percent for the year, while Everest Capital Emerging Markets returned 0.2 percent in December and 19.7 percent for the year. This compares with a 2.2 percent loss in 2014 suffered by the MSCI emerging markets index. The firm invests globally but with a strong emphasis on emerging markets.
