Another high-profile hedge fund with links to Julian Robertson, Jr.’s Tiger Management lost money in the first half of the year. Stephen Mandel Jr.’s Lone Pine Capital, one of the first Tiger Cubs to launch a hedge fund after leaving Tiger, lost between 1 percent and 3 percent in its long-short equity funds, depending upon the fund or the investor. The long-only funds were off about 1 percent. An investor in the funds says the funds suffered mostly from missing out on some of the year’s biggest gainers among the activist targets, airlines and yield-driven stocks like real estate investment trusts.
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Christopher Hansen’s Valiant Capital Partners lost 1.24 percent in June despite posting a 2.56 percent gain in its side pocket portfolio. However, the liquid fund, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the firm’s total assets of roughly $2.4 billion, lost 1.92 percent last month. As a result, the San Francisco–based Tiger Grandcub (meaning that he worked for a Tiger Cub before launching his own firm) is up about 5.3 percent for the first half of the year.
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Robert Citrone’s Discovery Global Opportunity Fund, run by his South Norwalk, Connecticut-based Discovery Capital Management, cut its loss for the year to 9.72 percent after gaining 0.81 percent in June. Citrone tells clients in a new email message that equity, credit, and rate positions contributed to last month’s positive return. The Tiger Cub added that the fund lost money in currencies. Its equity performance was led by positions in developed markets such as the U.S., Japan and Canada, while positions in Europe generated losses.
“Overall, positioning in emerging markets lost money, led by losses in Argentina, China/Hong Kong, and Taiwan,” Discovery told recipients of its e-mail. However, it made money in Mexico, India and Brazil. Its money-making position in fixed income was led by gains from credit and interest rate positions, Discovery adds. Credit gains were driven by “positions in peripheral Europe, Argentina and Venezuela.”
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Jonathan Auerbach’s Hound Partners — yet another Tiger-affiliated manager, who received start-up capital from Robertson — boosted its stake in Carter’s by 300,000 shares to a little more than 3.7 million shares, or 6.92 percent of the total outstanding. The stake in the children’s clothing retailer is passive, according to a regulatory filing.
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Another key Citigroup trader is leaving to join a hedge fund. Scott Balkan, head of distressed debt at the bank, plans to join Silver Point Capital as a trader, according to Bloomberg, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Back in May, Michael Pringle, global head of equities trading, left Citigroup to join Moore Capital Management; Simon Yates, head of equity derivatives, joined Two Sigma Investments; while Jeff Feig, global head of foreign exchange, went over to Fortress Investment Group, according to the report.
