John Lykouretzos, 46, who started the stock hedge fund Hoplite Capital Management 16 years ago, did just that in August. He wrote to clients that while he was proud to have made money in several years when his peers did not, “the alpha we generated has been overshadowed by underperformance in other periods.” Another fund-to-family office conversion this year was Sandell Asset Management, an activist shop founded in 1998 by Thomas Sandell.
Take a Step Back, Jack
Other managers decided on a hybrid approach, keeping a few clients but giving themselves room to pursue other interests.
Louis Bacon, 63, told investors in his Moore Capital Management that he was stepping back from trading and returning money in his main hedge funds. He will keep his firm open as a prop trading group managing his own and employee money, and a few star managers will run funds open to outside clients. “Time will tell how eagerly I pry myself away from daily markets, or return if I do,” Bacon wrote to clients.
David Tepper, 62, decided this year to kick out all but 15 clients out of his $13 billion Appaloosa Management. That will give him time to focus on turning around the struggling Carolina Panthers, the professional football team he bought last year.
Find a New Home, Joan
Samantha Greenberg, 44, who spent almost seven years at John Paulson’s hedge fund before going out on her own, gave up on her $215 million Margate Capital Management just three years after it opened. The reason, she said, was an inability to grow the business. After closing her own shop, Greenberg joined Ken Griffin’s $32 billion Citadel. “I have come to believe that the hedge fund industry requires far greater scale than in the past,” she told her clients.
Tough Calling It Quits, Fritz
Former star mutual fund manager Jeff Vinik, 60, made a splash in the 1990s when he raised $800 million to start a hedge fund, then one of the largest launches on record. Since then he’s stopped and started another two times. His latest attempt was short-lived: Eight months after opening, he decided to close down Vinik Asset Management in October after failing to raise the $3 billion he was targeting. “Simply put, it has been much harder to raise money over the last several months than I anticipated,” he told clients, adding that he very much doubts he’ll try again.
Closing It All, Paul