| John Griffin, Blue Ridge Capital (Bloomberg) |
John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital is the latest long-short fund specialist to launch a long-only fund.
The New York–based Tiger Cub is planning to trot out Blue Ridge Long Fund at the beginning of 2016, according to several knowledgeable sources. Initially, the fund will be available only to existing investors in the firm’s long-short hedge fund. Griffin decided to start the new fund after limited partners had been asking for one for some time, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, the flagship fund, Blue Ridge, is up in the mid-single digits so far this year after losing money last year. The long-short fund has been closed to investors for some time. The firm, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next July, had about $8 billion under management at the beginning of the year.
Blue Ridge’s timing is a little curious, given that it is launching its long-only fund in the seventh year of the bull market.
A growing number of other long-short managers have launched long-only funds in recent years.
Among them are several firms whose founders previously worked for or have some sort of link to Julian Robertson Jr.’s Tiger Management. They include Stephen Mandel Jr.’s Greenwich, Connecticut–based Lone Pine Capital; O. Andreas Halvorsen’s Greenwich, Connecticut–based Viking Global Investors; Lee Ainslie III’s Dallas-based Maverick Capital; Chase Coleman’s New York–based Tiger Global Management; Jonathan Auerbach’s New York–based Hound Partners; and Philippe Laffont’s New York–based Coatue Management.
Griffin graduated from the University of Virginia in 1985 with a BS in finance. He received his MBA in 1990 from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Griffin worked as a financial analyst for Morgan Stanley’s merchant bank before joining Tiger in 1987. He served as president of the firm from 1993 to 1996 before leaving to launch Blue Ridge.
