Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel is on a roll in more ways than one. The Chicago-based hedge fund firm now has $24 billion in assets under management, fully 50 percent more than the $16.1 billion it managed at the beginning of the year, according to people familiar with the firm. It had $14 billion at the start of 2013.
Citadel’s Wellington and Kensington Global Strategies multistrategy funds posted inflows of $1.75 billion, while the firm’s global fixed income strategy took in $2.7 billion in net new money. The remaining gain in assets came from performance. In September Wellington and Kensington posted gains of 4.35 percent. As a result, they are now up 14.80 percent for the year. The funds’ gains have been driven by their equity and fixed income strategies. The funds posted gains of 19.6 percent last year after generating gains of more than 20 percent the two prior years.
Citadel Global Equities rose 3.35 percent in September and is now up 16.85 percent for the year. Citadel’s Global Fixed Income, a standalone fixed income fund, surged 5.15 percent in September and is now up 8 percent for the year.
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Citadel’s strong performance this year compares very favorably to other high-profile multistrategy funds, which are plodding along at a slower pace. For example, New York-based Highbridge Capital Management’s Highbridge Capital Corporation gained 6 percent through September. And through September 25, with three trading days left in the month, Israel “Izzy” Englander’s New York-based Millennium International, operated by Millennium Management, had gained 7 percent.
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Mason Capital Management, the event-driven fund that sometimes takes an activist approach, disclosed that it owns 8.143 percent of The Madison Square Garden Company. The disclosure was made in a 13G filing, meaning it is intended to be a passive investment. At the end of the second quarter, it did not own any shares of the owner of the Madison Square Garden arena, the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks.
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New York-based Candlewood Investment Group plans to launch The Candlewood Puerto Rico SP fund, which will invest in debt instruments in Puerto Rico, according to Bloomberg. The $3 billion firm, headed by Michael Lau, will be looking at general-obligation bonds, debt of public corporations and the monoline-wrapped sector, according to the report, citing a presentation obtained by Bloomberg News.
