One year ago
»» Suzanne Murphy, head of strategic development (a newly created role) at then-$5.1 billion long/short credit shop Claren Road Asset Management, left the firm. She resurfaced two weeks later as a partner at $3.9 billion Ares Management (see performance here), based in the Los Angeles firm’s New York office.
She was at the firm for less than a year. An Ares spokesman confirmed she is no longer employed there (he declined to say when she left) and her responsibilities have been assumed by senior partner David Reilly.
Elizabeth Gill, a spokeswoman for Claren Road—which is majority owned by Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein—declined to comment on whether a different person was now filling the role. One thing is certain: Claren Road has continued to grow, as it managed $7.11 billion in hedge fund assets as of midyear.
Murphy could not immediately be reached for comment.
See also: Claren Road bucks trend, returns cash • Carlyle Group accelerates push into hedge funds • Rubenstein anticipates PE growth, strategy change
Five years ago
»» Steve Cohen’s $14 billion SAC Capital Management planned to reopen its multistrategy hedge fund to new investors. The move was seen as a way to take advantage of buying opportunities created by a sell-off in global financial markets.
Performance for that fund was unavailable, but the firm’s flagship hardly rode a wave of opportunity in the subsequent year. It lost roughly 28% in 2008, though it bounced back in subsequent years. Assets dipped during the crisis, but are back up to $14 billion, according to AR’s upcoming midyear Billion Dollar Club survey.
This year, SAC’s flagship is up 5.2% through midyear, compared with a 2.65% gain for the AR Composite Index during the same period. A spokesman for the firm was not immediately available for comment.
See also: Jos Shaver preps SAC liftout • Paul Orwicz to rejoin SAC as Sursum shuts • Former SAC exec Aaron Cowen preps global equity fund Suvretta
»» Consultants and institutional investors kept a stiff upper lip in the face of quantitative hedge fund setbacks.
By the end of 2007, the bloodshed at model-driven funds was widespread. The following year saw better times. As one investor told AR: “Quants ultimately ended up doing pretty well—at least those able to stay in the business.”
Meanwhile the relatively-contained quantitative calamity of 2007 was quickly overshadowed by the financial crisis a year later.
See also: Overcoming the quant quandary