Tiger Global Management on Monday announced key personnel changes including the departure of Feroz Dewan, who has run the closely watched Wall Street firm's hedge fund operations and is leaving to start his own business.
Dewan, a partner who has been with Tiger Global for 12 years, will leave at the end of June, the firm's founder, Chase Coleman, wrote to clients in a letter seen by Reuters.
Tiger Global oversees roughly $20 billion in assets, with roughly half invested in its fast-growing private equity business. The remainder is invested in public equities with about $6 billion in its hedge fund and $3.5 billion in its long-only portfolios.
Scott Shleifer, who had been running the private equity business with Lee Fixel, will take over as head of the firm's public equity business.
Tiger Global has long been focused on technology investing and listed Chinese e-commerce company JD.com Inc as its biggest holding at the end of the first quarter. It also raised its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Co , which listed its shares in the biggest ever initial public offering last year, a regulatory filing shows.
The hedge fund started the year on a rocky note but recovered some ground in April with a 3.2 percent gain, leaving it down 2.4 percent for the year to date, an investor said.
Coleman, one of a number of managers who learned the business from industry legend Julian Robertson, said he will be "closely involved in the portfolio management and investment research of both businesses and will also maintain primary responsibility for the non-investment functions of the firm."
Some of the so-called Tiger Cubs, who got their start with Robertson's Tiger Management, rank among the industry's best performers. Others have fallen on hard times with at least three firms that trace their roots back to Robertson shutting down this year.
Separately, Caleb Watts, also a Tiger Global partner, also will be leaving to focus on managing his own money, according to the letter.
To streamline operations the firm is also merging its Tiger Global Internet Opportunities Fund into its Tiger Global Long Opportunities fund.