A little-known Asian hedge fund headed by a former managing director at Lone Pine Capital is one of the most successful funds this year.
Hong Kong–based Tybourne Capital Management’s Tybourne Equity Master Fund posted a 1.85 percent gain in September and is now up 12.7 percent year to date. The fund, launched July 2, 2012, returned 5.7 percent last year and 16.04 percent in 2013. The fund gained 4.36 percent in its first half-year of operation.
Tybourne’s manager is Viswanathan (Eashwar) Krishnan, who is considered a Tiger Grandcub because he was previously a senior analyst at Stephen Mandel Jr.’s Greenwich, Connecticut–based Lone Pine Capital for 11 years. Krishnan says he was a “significant contributor to overall Lone Pine performance,” according to Tybourne’s offering document, obtained by Alpha. He also claims to have generated “meaningful, consistent alpha generation,” both on the long and short sides of the firm’s portfolio, and that he enjoyed a “record of generating attractive long-term returns on capital.”
Krishnan moved to Hong Kong in 2007 to set up and manage Lone Pine’s operations in Asia. Lone Pine has a small ownership stake in Tybourne and made an investment to fund a portion of its start-up and operating expenses, according to Tybourne’s document.
Prior to his stint at Lone Pine, Krishnan spent two years as an analyst in the Principal Investment Area at Goldman Sachs. He earned degrees in physics from Trinity College, Cambridge University, in 1998 and St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, in 1996.
Over the years, Krishnan has specialized in technology and emerging markets across a number of different industries.
These days, Tybourne reportedly manages about $2.5 billion. It recently reported a U.S. stock portfolio of $1.18 billion. The fund specializes in four sectors: consumer, financials, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology) and industrials.
In the offering presentation, Tybourne said it expects to have 30 to 40 long positions and 50 to 70 short positions at any given time. It also aimed for a gross exposure of 120 percent to 180 percent and a net exposure ranging between 30 percent and 60 percent.
Tybourne charges a 1.5 percent management fee and different incentive fees for three different classes that have either a one-year soft lock-up, a three-year lockup or a five-year lockup.
At the Sohn Investment Conference in Hong Kong back in June, Krishnan told the audience he had a large investment in airport operators as a play on the growing Chinese travel market, which has been fueled by rising incomes, according to a report at the time from the Wall Street Journal. Krishnan singled out as a top pick the Japan Airport Terminal Co., which operates the Haneda Airport terminal buildings near Tokyo. He also reportedly said the Shanghai International Airport was undervalued.
Krishnan’s U.S. portfolio is very concentrated, with just eight individual holdings at the end of the second quarter.
His largest investment was in cable giant Charter Communications, a new position that accounted for nearly 22 percent of the firm’s U.S. long portfolio. This was followed closely by large positions in e-commerce giant Amazon.com and Yelp, the online commercial listings and review company.
