The 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Vikram Kumar

Kumar’s patience and stock-picking talent pay off at London-based TT International.

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< The 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars

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Vikram Kumar
TT International

After leaving Kenya for London in the 1970s, Vikram Kumar’s father opened a commodities trading business, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit that he’d pass on to his son. In 2013, Kumar, a portfolio manager at TT International, sold the London-based hedge fund firm on his idea for a new investment strategy that aims to take advantage of inefficiencies in the market for European midsize companies. The $500 million TT Long/Short Focus Fund returned 26.8 percent last year, while most hedge funds took a wallop.

Kumar, 35, assembled a team of four professionals he knew and respected from outside $6.4 billion TT. Together they use their stock-picking expertise in consumer products, industrials and technology, media and telecommunications to capitalize on short-termism in and poor coverage of European midcaps. Kumar’s crew likes to make longer-term bets than many funds; although its investments lost 2.7 percent in 2014, they came back with a vengeance last year, putting Long/Short Focus up nearly 35 percent since inception.

The fund’s largest holding is Dutch GPS and navigation software maker TomTom, a choice motivated by the importance of navigation systems for the driverless cars of the future. Long/Short Focus dropped 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2016 — a loss that Kumar attributes to profit taking on its best-performing long bets — but its core short portfolio has gained 11 percent since inception, versus an 18 percent rise in the benchmark STOXX 600 Europe Index.

Kumar began his career at UBS in 2003 after graduating from the University of Cambridge, where he studied history and management and played cricket. By late 2007, with the global financial crisis in full bloom, he was director of the European midcap equity sales team for the Swiss bank, but he wanted to try his hand at money management rather than dole out advice in a bear market. So Kumar left to join client TT at the beginning of 2008; as co-manager of the firm’s $800 million TT Mid-Cap Europe Long/Short Fund, he first demonstrated his star qualities by guiding the fund to a 15.5 percent gain that year.

Visit the 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Ivy League Schools Pave the Way for more.


Hedge Fund Rising Stars of 2016

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Jessye Ball
Millennium Mgmt

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Sarah Berner
Aristeia Capital

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Jenna Bussman-Wise
AIG Investments

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Maureen Chang
Point72 Asset Mgmt

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Dennis Chenfu
Pershing

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Charles Dufresne Jr.
Sciens Capital Mgmt

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William Freda
Graticule Asset Mgmt Asia

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Samantha Greenberg
Margate Capital

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Mark Gurevich
Ropes & Gray

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Tal Gurion
Mariner Glen Oaks

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Craig Huie
University of California

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Yusef Kassim
Blue Harbour Group

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Florian Kronawitter
White Square Capital

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Vikram Kumar
TT International

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Brandon Levin
Jana Partners

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Jonathan Levin
George Weiss Associates

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Brett Minarik
Aksia

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Ian Monroe
Etho Capital

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Jason Morrow
Utah Retirement Systems

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Pierre-Adrien Nicolas
Squarepoint Capital

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Jamie Pabst
Green Owl Capital Mgmt

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Parag Pande
Blackstone Group

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Agata Praczuk
MetLife

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Max Saffian
Fortress Investment Group

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Matt Satnick
MSD Partners

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Eric Singer
Viex Capital Advisors

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Katina Stefanova
Marto Capital

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Reginald Tucker
New York State Common Retirement Fund

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Michael Wang
Cypress Funds

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Sean Wygovsky
Polar Asset Mgmt Partners


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