| Eric Mindich (Bloomberg) |
Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital Management is on a roll.
The hedge fund firm’s Eton Park multistrategy fund gained another 2.4 percent in May and is now up 10 percent for the first five months of the year.
As a result, former Goldman Sachs partner Mindich is one of the top-performing multistrategy managers so far this year. And although various funds run by his firm gained between 5.6 percent and 6.4 percent last year, Eton Park is up 17.8 percent over the trailing 12-month period.
Mindich declined to comment.
However, according to someone knowledgeable about the portfolio, Eton Park Capital’s gains this year have been driven by a wide variety of strategies, including international markets such as Japan and others in Asia, event-driven strategies fueled by mergers and acquisitions, and derivatives.
In his first-quarter report after his funds rose more than 7 percent, Mindich told clients that gains were broad-based “from all regions and strategies.” In fact, 18 positions gained at least 25 basis points, while three lost that amount.
Highbridge Capital, the flagship multistrategy fund of New York–based Highbridge Capital Management, also extended its strong gains, rising 1.77 percent for the month. As a result, the fund is up 9.08 percent for the year.
Highbridge, a unit of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, saw its performance last month driven by a broad contribution by the fund’s Asia strategies, relative value credit, convertibles and fundamental equities.
Elsewhere, Kenneth Griffin’s flagship Kensington and Wellington funds rose just 0.7 percent in May. Even so, they are up 8.05 percent year to date. Their returns were driven by fixed income, commodities and credit.
Citadel Global Equities, a separate stand-alone fund, was up 0.85 percent for the month and 8.7 percent for the year to date.
The funds managed by Israel (Izzy) Englander’s Millennium Management rose 1.3 percent last month and are up 6.2 percent for the year. The New York–based funds were said to have benefited from a broad range of strategies.
Meanwhile, Millennium has raised about $2 billion this year and now manages $29.2 billion, up from $25.6 billion at the beginning of the year. The rest of the increase is due to performance.
Visium Asset Management’s New York–based multistrategy fund, Visium Global Fund, rose 1.9 percent in May and 6 percent for the year.
We earlier reported that Och-Ziff Capital Management Group’s main multistrategy fund, OZ Master Fund, rose about 1 percent in May and 4.65 percent year to date.
Investors have clearly taken notice of the strategy’s strong performance. According to industry tracker eVestment, investors added $8.7 billion to multistrategy funds in April, bringing the total for the year to $28.9 billion. Altogether, there was about $448 billion invested in the strategy at the beginning of May. “April’s inflow puts YTD totals firmly above the pace of 2014 and is the group’s best pace of new allocations since 2007,” eVestment stated in a recent report.
