What a difference a year makes for Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management.
Last year the Tiger Cub’s long-short hedge fund lost 14.4 percent in the first quarter and 22 percent in just the first two months of the year. It was a hole the firm never fully dug out of, finishing the year down 15.3 percent — making it one of the worst-performing hedge funds with ties to Julian Robertson Jr.’s Tiger Management. But Tiger Global has gotten off to a strong start in the new year, posting a 5.5 percent net gain in January. And if you think one month doesn’t make a year, just ask Coleman about 2016. The firm declined to comment on the performance.
It is not known exactly which stocks drove the hedge fund’s January returns or even which stocks were its largest holdings. However, we do know that Tiger Global ratcheted up its net exposure to public companies, to 43.4 percent from 25.4 percent, just three months earlier, even as gross exposure remained roughly unchanged, according to its December 31, 2016, exposure report sent to clients.
And — little surprise for Coleman — by far the bulk of this net long bet at year-end went to media and Internet stocks. The portfolio had much smaller net-long bets with telecommunications and financials.
On the other hand, Tiger Global was one of many hedge funds that are heavily betting against retail and consumer stocks. It is 8 percent net long and 23.3 percent net short this sector.
As of the end of the year, Tiger Global had 24 longs; its ten largest accounted for nearly three quarters of equity. We don’t know exactly which stocks they were, since they are not disclosed in the one-page exposure report and the deadline for asset managers to file their fourth-quarter U.S. stock holdings with the Securities and Exchange Commission is February 14.
In any case, as of the end of the third quarter — the last period for which equity investors were required to disclose their U.S. long positions — Tiger Global had especially large stakes in four stocks. They were the Priceline Group, Amazon.com, Charter Communications, and JD.com.
In January, Priceline rose 7.4 percent, Amazon.com rose about 10 percent, Charter rose 12.5 percent, and JD.com climbed 11.6 percent.
In 2016, Tiger Global suffered a 7.7 percent loss in its public long book and a 2.5 percent loss in its short book, according to the report.
Tiger Global’s private equity portfolio, which has been reduced to just 6.8 percent of its exposure, lost 2.2 percent last year.
Fees and expenses cut into 2.9 percent of 2016’s loss.
