Another hedge fund seeded by the legendary Tiger Management founder Julian Robertson Jr. is shutting down after posting nearly three consecutive years of losses. Tyrian Investments, founded in 2010 by Orlando Muyshondt, is closing its event-driven, long-short hedge fund firm, according to ValueWalk, citing two sources close to the fund. Its main fund, Tyrian Global Opportunities Fund, was down 15 percent this year, according to ValueWalk. It lost 3.1 percent in 2015 and 8.8 percent in 2014, according to several documents obtained by Alpha.
The firm had $535 million under management at the end of 2015, according to its most recent ADV filing, about half the more than $1 billion it managed in 2014. Tyrian regularly told clients it targeted a net exposure of 20 percent to 40 percent and a gross exposure of 150 percent to 180 percent. A 2014 report sent by Tyrian to clients states: “Mr. Muyshondt is keenly focused on capital preservation as the majority of his liquid net worth is invested in the Fund.” Oh well.
“Any non-household name that is down two years is toast,” says one investor in hedge funds who does not want to be identified. “Some down one year will be.”
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Tyrian’s announced closing comes one day after Paul Hudson’s Glade Brook Capital Partners revealed it will close its hedge fund and instead launch separate vehicles that will take large stakes in public securities, according to Reuters. The Greenwich, Connecticut firm is planning to launch its first new fund, GB Special Opportunities Fund, in early 2017 with more than $200 million, according to the report.
“Our new, more opportunistic approach to public markets investing will enable us to better capitalize on big investment ideas by focusing our efforts and tailoring each fund to a specific investment program and the needs of our clients,” Hudson wrote in a letter dated November 29, according to Reuters.
As we have reported in the past, about 1.5 years ago, Glade Brook drastically boosted its emphasis on private companies, such as Uber Technologies and Snap, and reduced its exposure to public equities. As of October 1, $935 million of the firm’s total assets of $1.2 billion were invested in private equity vehicles, according to a client letter obtained by Alpha. Hudson is sometimes called a Tiger Grandcub because he was a former managing director at Tiger Cub Chris Shumway’s Shumway Capital Partners.
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Alphadyne Asset Management is spinning off its Asia investment team, according to Bloomberg, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. The New York hedge-fund firm currently manages $4.8 billion in assets. Bart Broadman, Alphadyne co-founder and chief investment officer of its Asia strategy, will serve as CIO of the new firm, which will be based in Singapore. It will manage about $2 billion, according to the report. The changes will take place in the first half of next year. It will continue to focus on economic trends in Asia, trading markets such as interest rates and foreign exchange. Alphadyne was founded in 2005 by Broadman and Philippe Khuong-Huu, who previously worked together at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Shares of Rockwell Collins surged 3.6 percent on Thursday, to close at $96.07, after Bloomberg reported that activist hedge fund firm Starboard Value is pressuring the company to reconsider its planned $6.4 billion acquisition of B/E Aerospace. Starboard, headed by Jeffrey Smith, wants the supplier to airplane manufacturers to mull other options, including putting itself up for sale. Rockwell spokeswoman Pam Tvrdy told Bloomberg in an e-mailed statement: “We remain confident that the acquisition of B/E Aerospace will create significant value for our shareholders. We’re excited to bring together these two industry leaders and look forward to closing this transformative transaction in the spring of 2017.”
Shares of B/E Aerospace fell 1.7 percent, to close at $59.02. Boston-based Highfields Capital Management was B/E Aerospace’s third largest shareholder as of the end of the third quarter.
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Separately, Starboard Value once again cut its stake in Insperity, to 4.8 percent. As a result, the activist firm no longer is required to report to regulators when it sells additional shares of the human resources services provider. In late May, Insperity and Starboard reached a compromise agreement whereby John Morphy, a director nominated by the Starboard, would be appointed to the board. Insperity’s board said it would launch a search for an additional independent director. The deal also called for the board to make changes to the composition of its standing committees.
