The Morning Brief: Another Tiger Progeny, Cascabel, Closes

Cascabel Management is the latest hedge fund firm backed by Julian Robertson, Jr. to shut down, according to a source. The New York-based seed, headed by Scott Sinclair and Laurence Chang, has liquidated 80 percent of its portfolio. The firm’s hedge fund had lost 10.2 percent in the first quarter and was down 5.8 percent for the year through April. In 2014 it lost 17.9 percent but was up 28.9 percent in 2013. However, it compounded at 3.7 percent since its 2008 inception. Cascabel recently reported managing $72 million.

Sinclair joined Tiger Management in 1991. He spent some time in Tokyo covering consumer stocks and East Asian markets. When he returned to New York, he took primary responsibility for Tiger’s coverage of media and entertainment. Chang previously worked at Marc Lasry’s New York City hedge fund firm, Avenue Capital Management. Cascabel is at least the fifth fund with roots to Robertson’s New York-based Tiger Management to shut down since the start of 2014. Earlier this year, John Thaler announced he was shutting down JAT Capital Management, his long-short hedge fund firm. The others are Patrick McCormack’s Tiger Consumer Management, TigerShark Management, co-founded by Thomas Facciola and Michael Sears, and Joho Capital, headed by Robert Karr. Dow Jones initially reported the news of Cascabel’s closing.

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Oceanwood Capital Management has raised $250 million for a new hedge fund that will invest in Europe, according to Reuters. The fund, Oceanwood Peripheral European Select Opportunities Fund, will focus on a variety of asset classes but mainly emphasize financial stocks in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, among others. The London firm was spun out from Tudor Group in 2006 “with a significant investment from Tudor,” according to the fund’s website. The new fund is aiming for 15 percent to 20 percent annual returns, according to the report. Oceanwood is the latest among a string of hedge funds raising money to invest in Europe. As we earlier chronicled, Marc Lasry’s New York-based Avenue Capital Management completed its first close on $1.1 billion and hopes to eventually raise as much as 2.5 billion for its Europe Special Situations Fund III. New York-based Marathon Asset Management, a credit and debt specialist, is loading up on nonperforming loans from European banks secured by hard assets. York Capital Management earlier raised some $500 million for its new fund, York European Distressed Credit Fund II. We also recently reported that Centerbridge Partners has opened up its hedge funds to new capital for the first time in several years. The New York distressed-debt specialist has told investors it wants to prepare for when opportunities open up, in the belief that when they do, they will be large and attractive. Centerbridge is not targeting a specific industry or region, however.

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Citadel owns nearly 2.4 million shares of InfraREIT, Inc., or 5.5 percent of the total. The real estate investment trust, which owns rate-regulated electric transmission and distribution assets in Texas, went public earlier this year.

Patrick McCormack New York Marc Lasry John Thaler Michael Sears
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