In the market’s worst year since the financial crisis of 2008, hedge funds lost $208.4 billion, according to an annual report by LCH Investments Chairman Rick Sophers. Almost 9 percent of those losses are attributable to one hedge fund firm — Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global.
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Hedge Funds Lost More Than $200 Billion Last Year
Tiger Global and Third Point were among the biggest losers.
The list, which Sopher calls “the greatest money managers of all time,” ranks the top 20 managers based on the gains made for their investors over time, as well as detailing the profits made by those managers and the entire hedge fund universe during the prior year.
But losses by two major hedge funds, Tiger Global and Third Point, got them kicked them off the list for 2022.
Tiger Global’s Chase Coleman appears to be the biggest loser. Tiger Global’s long/short equity hedge fund lost 56 percent, while its smaller long-only fund fell 67 percent during 2022, as Institutional Investor previously reported. Both funds are included in Sopher’s calculations.
Tiger Global first made the list during the pandemic year of 2020, when it debuted at No. 14. The alternative investment firm fell to No. 16 in 2021, when it lost $1.5 billion as the tech bubble it had profited from began to burst. At the end of 2021, Tiger Global’s hedge fund assets totaled $35 billion, according to LCH’s calculations, and the firm had earned $25 billion for investors since its launch in 2001.
By the end of 2022, more than 70 percent of those gains had vanished. According to Sopher, Tiger Global lost $18 billion during the year.
Tiger Global declined to comment.
Loeb’s Third Point, which joined the list in 2021 at No. 20, lost around $3.5 billion in 2022, according to an individual familiar with the numbers — thus ending its brief reign as one of the top money managers. At the end of 2021, the hedge fund firm had total assets of $16.5 billion and had made $18.8 billion for investors since inception in 1995. But its offshore hedge fund lost 21.8 percent in 2022 — the fund’s worst showing since the 2008 financial crisis. According to Third Point, the fund ended 2022 with $12.6 billion in assets.
A few other Tiger funds that have long ranked on the LCH list also lost money in 2022 — but not as much as Tiger Global, allowing them to stay on the list. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking even jumped a notch to seventh place from eighth, despite losing $3 billion in 2022. Launched in 1999, it has made $35 billion for investors over time.
Tiger Cub Lone Pine, headed by Steve Mandel, lost $10.9 billion last year, but has still made $31.3 billion for investors since it was launched in 1996. It dropped to eleventh place from sixth in 2021.
Other hedge fund mangers who lost money but still made the list include Baupost’s Seth Klarman, with a loss of $1.5 billion. Despite the loss, Baupost improved to eighth place, up from tenth in 2021, and has made $33.2 billion for investors since 1983.
Sculptor Capital Management (formerly Och Ziff) lost $1.8 billion in 2022 but has still made $29.9 billion for investors since 1994. It is now in thirteenth place, down a notch from 2022.
TCI’s Chris Hohn lost $8.1 billion, falling to fourteenth place from ninth. The hedge fund has returned $28.4 billion to investors since launch in 2004.
In addition, sixteenth-place Egerton lost $4.1 billion, eighteenth-place Davidson Kempner lost $400 million, and nineteenth-place King Street lost $700 million.
The big winner for the year was Citadel’s Ken Griffin, who catapulted over Bridgewater Associates to the No. 1 spot after making a stunning $16 billion for Citadel’s investors in 2022. Citadel has made $65.9 billion for investors since Griffin launched his hedge fund in 1990.