| James ‘Jamie’ Dinan poses in New York on June 20, 2006 (Photo credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News). |
York Capital Management’s woes continued in the second half of last year.The New York hedge fund firm headed by James (Jamie) Dinan suffered $3 billion or so in redemptions over the second half of 2016. This brought the total amount of redemptions for the year to roughly $5 billion. As a result, York’s assets had fallen to $16.2 billion at year-end.
This is down 27 percent from the start of last year, when York had $22.3 billion and was ranked the 23rd-largest hedge fund firm in the world, according to Alpha’s 2016 Hedge Fund 100 survey. It is not known yet where York ranks now.
York also reduced fees on its funds, although it is not known how much and which fees. One published report says the largest clients benefited.
The firm declined to comment.
York is hardly the only firm to have suffered sizable redemptions last year. The industry in general suffered its third year ever of net outflows. And many large firms posted declines in assets from both redemptions and losses posted by their funds.
York investors no doubt are disappointed that the firm’s flagship multistrategy fund, launched in 1991, lost money for the second straight year, although last year it was down only about 1 percent. It was down nearly 8 percent early in the year and lost 14 percent in 2015.
Of course, last year was not exactly a great one for multistrategy funds in general. Most of the major ones were up in the low- to mid-single digits.
Several other York funds were profitable last year.
The $3.9 billion York Credit Opportunities Fund gained 4.2 percent for 2016 after being in the red earlier in the year. It was down 7.8 percent in 2015.
In addition, the $1.1 billion Global Credit Income Fund gained 14.6 percent, and the $2.8 billion European Opportunities Fund rose 2.8 percent last year. York Select Fund returned 5.8 percent last year.
Meanwhile, at least several of York’s funds have already gotten off to a strong start this year. In January the flagship multistrategy fund gained 4 percent, Credit Opportunities returned 2.6 percent, and Select surged 7.7 percent.
Last year Michael Weinberger, one of the earliest partners of the firm, left the firm after 16 years to launch his own fund.
Dinan launched York in 1991 after serving as general partner at New York risk arbitrage firm Kellner DiLeo & Co.
He invested $100 million in the National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks, owned by private equity kingpins Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry, and is known for traveling around the globe in his private plane.
