Tiger Global posted a 3.3 percent gain in April in its long-short hedge funds, cutting its loss for the year to a little more than 2 percent, according to documents obtained by Alpha.
Two funds headed by Feroz Dewan - Tiger Global LP and Tiger Global Ltd. - lost 5.5 percent in the first quarter after dropping 2.9 percent in March.
However, Tiger Global Long Opportunities (TGLO) was up 3.8 percent in the first quarter. (We don’t have April’s performance.)
The hedge fund firm’s top performer is its newest fund - Tiger Global Internet Opportunities (TGIO) - launched this year. Its onshore fund was up 5.8 percent while the offshore version gained 5.3 percent.
New York-based Tiger Global Management was founded by Charles “Chase" Coleman III, who ranked No. 10 on this year’s Rich List with $425 million. Dewan ranked No. 16 with $260 million.
In its first quarter letter obtained by Alpha, the firm told clients it changed the liquidity terms for TGLO and TGIO. Investors can now make partial redemptions monthly. Currently, investors can withdraw up to 5 percent of their money in any 12-month period on a quarterly basis as long as they give 60 days’ notice. Its rolling lock-ups remain in effect, the firm adds.
Long stock positions were the star of the show in the first quarter for the firm. In the letter, Tiger Global said its shorts accounted “for over 100 percent of losses" while its longs were profitable, a fact we earlier reported.
This has been a big problem for many of the Tiger Cubs and other long-short funds with roots to Julian Robertson, Jr.'s Tiger Management. However, Tiger Global does not seem too concerned.
“We believe many of the year-to-date losses in our short portfolio do not represent permanent capital losses, and we remain focused on generating absolute profit dollars from each of our short positions," the letter said, not identifying the specific shorts.
The letter was also not clear as to what accounted for April’s sharp gains.
However, the first quarter letter does identify the best-performing longs over the first three months of the year.
The letter said two Chinese e-commerce companies - JD.com and Vipshop - were its two best profit contributors in the first quarter. The firm points out both companies reported strong fourth-quarter growth and operating performance.
Tiger Global, which devotes the bulk of its discussion on JD.com, called the company “the leading fulfillment-based e-commerce company in China" and the second largest e-commerce company in China behind Alibaba Group. “Over the coming decades, we expect e-commerce to capture the majority of growth in non-grocery retail spending in developing markets,” the letter said, noting that brick-and-mortar retail businesses are relatively small in those markets.
Tiger Global also said it did well with its longs in two cable companies: Altice/Numericable and Charter Communications.
“Altice has continued its consolidation of the European cable market and the stock has appreciated as the company continues to generate incremental synergies from recent acquisitions," the investment firm told clients.
Meanwhile, Tiger Global pointed out in the letter that its private-equity business recently made another investment in Flipkart, a major Indian online retailer, and now owns about 30 percent of the company.
