Soros-Backed Fund Glen Point Loses in First Trading Year

[MikeWB]

Glen Point Capital, one of last year's biggest European hedge-fund startups after raising almost $2 billion, lost 4.1 percent in 2016, according to an investor letter.

The macro hedge fund shed 5 percent in November, a month when several peers profited from the market volatility sparked by Donald Trump's surprise election victory. The London-based fund, which is focused on emerging markets and raised money from investors including George Soros, managed $1.8 billion as of the start of 2017, the letter shows. A spokesman declined to comment.

Macro hedge funds as a whole are staging a comeback after years of poor performance caused by low interest rates and central-bank intervention. Glen Point, which was started by former BlueBay managers Neil Phillips and Jonathan Fayman, lagged a 2016 gain of about 3 percent by its macro peers, preliminary data from Eurekahedge show.

Glen Point was among a small number of hedge funds, including Rokos Capital Management and Key Square Group, to raise new money last year, a time when investors pulled $83 billion from the industry, according to research firm eVestment. Macro trading strategies suffered $8.8 billion of net outflows.

The money manager sees the European Central Bank and and Bank of Japan moderating their asset purchase programs, leading to a repricing of interest rate markets. It's also betting that the yuan and Taiwanese dollar will fall against the U.S. dollar following Trump's decision to appoint people with "pro-manufacturing/anti-China" views, according to the letter.