After 22 years since its launch, D.E. Shaw’s largest multi-strategy fund — the D.E. Shaw Composite Fund — has posted yet another round of positive performance.
The fund returned an estimated 9.6 percent net gain in 2023, according to a person familiar with the firm’s results. By comparison, the PivotalPath multi-strategy hedge fund index returned 6.5 percent during the same period.
Since inception, the fund has returned 12.5 percent and has only had one down year. The fund posted lower performance than in 2022, when it returned 24.6 percent.
The strong returns come amid a busy year for D.E. Shaw, which manages some $60 billion in investment capital. The firm’s operation in India opened offices in Gurugram and Bengaluru.
Institutional Investor reported in August that D.E. Shaw had begun fundraising for its sixth Akali Fund, a closed-end strategy that invests in the private and public markets, primarily in credit, credit-related, and opportunistic. This was just one of many fund launches for the firm during the year. Earlier in 2023, the firm raised a combined $1.1 billion for two new private investment vehicles: D. E. Shaw Voltaic Fund and D. E. Shaw Diopter Fund.
D.E. Shaw had a strong year elsewhere in its strategies. Its Oculus Fund, a macro-oriented multi-strategy offering, returned an estimated 7.8 percent net gain for the year. The Oculus strategy is D.E. Shaw’s second-largest fund, focusing primarily on macro investment opportunities.
The fund, which was launched in 2004, has returned 12.8 percent since inception, and has not had a negative year. It returned 20.1 percent in 2022.
The two funds are closed to new capital. D.E. Shaw expects to return full 2023 profits to outside investors in the two funds.
The person familiar with the firm’s overall results said that D.E. Shaw experienced gains across systematic, hybrid, and discretionary strategies.
