GLG hopes to retain $2bn of Coffey funds
UK hedge fund manager GLG Partners, which yesterday announced losses of more than $200m (€130m) for the first three months of the year, said it hoped to retain $2bn of the once $7bn of assets in the emerging markets funds run by manager Greg Coffey, who resigned last month.
The value of Coffey's funds has fallen from $7.2bn at the start of the year $6.3bn as a result of investment losses. The largest of the four funds, GLG emerging markets, has suffered an investment loss of 19% for the year to date.
Noam Gottesman, chairman and co-chief executive of GLG, which last year listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said GLG had received redemption requests on the emerging markets funds managed by Coffey of $1.7bn to date. He said that, of the $6.3bn in funds Coffey runs, GLG hopes to retain about $2bn, as a worst case scenario.
Coffey's resignation came as a surprise to GLG, Gottesman said: “It’s a curious situation in that one of the main motivations we had for going public was to be able to create a currency to attract and retain our key people. Obviously in this case, it did not work. I would never have imagined that a few hundred million dollars was an insufficient amount to retain someone, but this was the case here. Our currency has certainly served to attract other top quality people to us.”
He said the group has received several proposals from individual portfolio managers and teams, as well as companies which feel they may be able to help. GLG is interviewing emerging market and macro managers, as well as credit and distressed debt managers.
The main emerging markets fund managed by Coffey is down 19% year to date and dragged down the group’s average funds return on a dollar weighted basis to -7%.
The group had gross inflows of $3bn in the first three months of the year and $2.2bn in redemptions.
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