Tiger Global Investments disclosed that it raised $2.5 billion for its new venture capital fund, Tiger Global Private Investment Partners X. This was the high end of its hoped-for range of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, which we reported on November 12. The closing was scheduled for November 23. This is the New York firm’s tenth private fund in 12 years and its third new fund since the start of 2014.Separately, Tiger Global Management invested $59.5 million in a new $100 million fund raising completed by Tyro Payments, an Australian financial company that aims to facilitate credit card and debt card payments, according to a company announcement. ___
Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management is the latest hedge fund firm to announce plans to return all outside money to clients. This works out to $7 billion of the London firm’s total $8 billion in assets, down from $14.4 billion at the beginning of the year. Several years ago Platt, a former J.P. Morgan swaps trader, reportedly told prospective investors he hoped to grow BlueCrest to $50 billion. Clients will receive 75 percent of their money before the end of January and 90 percent by the end of the first quarter, according to an announcement by the firm. It will continue to manage partner money. “Ongoing secular changes in the industry, including trends in fee levels, the cost of hiring the best trading talent, and the challenges in tailoring investment products to meet the individual needs of a large number of investors, have weighed on hedge fund profitability,” the firm said in its announcement. BlueCrest’s assets stood at $35.3 billion at the beginning of 2013. It subsequently spun off $9 billion in computer-driven assets to Systematica Investments, the computer-driven firm led by Leda Braga, who managed the firm’s BlueTrend fund. The firm also suffered from redemptions from its existing funds. Last year, Platt earned $800 million, ranking sixth on Alpha’s Rich List, the fourth time he qualified for the top-25 list. ___
Greenwich, Connecticut-based Lone Pine Capital roughly tripled its stake in Williams Companies to nearly 42 million shares, or 5.6 percent of the total outstanding of the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based natural gas company. ___
Highbridge Capital Management disclosed it owns roughly 6 million shares of Synergy Pharmaceuticals, or 5.1 percent of the New York-based biopharmaceutical company. The New York hedge fund firm owned just 338,000 shares or so at the end of the third quarter. The stock is up more than 18 percent since then. ___
Eminence Capital nearly tripled its stake in Keurig Green Mountain to 10.66 million shares, or 7.2 percent of the Waterbury, Vermont maker of single-portion coffee brewing systems. The New York hedge fund firm, which sometimes takes activist positions, disclosed the holding in a passive, 13G filing.
