| Israel Englander, Millennium Management (Bloomberg) |
Is Israel (Izzy) Englander setting in motion a succession plan?
These is the big question swirling around the founder of New York–based Millennium Management since the 67-year-old announced earlier this week he is bringing in Robert Jain, the global head of Credit Suisse Asset Management, to serve as a co-chief investment officer with him.
Englander won’t comment. However, a person with knowledge of the situation at the multistrategy firm stresses that the move has nothing to do with a succession plan. Rather, the goal is simply to enhance the management team at the firm, which has gotten much bigger in recent years, by adding more senior people, according to this person.
Jain will help with overall risk management and the allocation of capital to the various teams, and work with Englander running the firm. Most importantly, the same people will continue to report to Englander.
At the beginning of 2016, Millennium had about $34 billion under management, making it one of the ten largest hedge fund firms in the world. It is now down to about $32.5 billion as its two main funds — Millennium International and Millennium USA — are down about 4 percent for the year, with two days remaining in the first quarter. They have mostly been hurt by losses in the long-short book, according to the person with knowledge of the firm.
Last year, however, the two funds returned about 12.5 percent, making them not only among the best-performing multistrategy funds but the best-performing hedge funds overall. In 2015, Millennium also raised nearly $4 billion before closing the funds to new investors. It could reopen them as early as midyear if Englander thinks there are good opportunities out there, according to a knowledgeable source.
Millennium has about 195 different trading teams managing the firm’s assets. Englander does not manage any of the money on a day-to-day basis but rather oversees the firm. This year he figures to qualify for Alpha’s Rich List for the 14th time in 15 years.
About three years ago Englander discussed the topic of succession with Alpha when he was inducted into the Alpha Hedge Fund Hall of Fame. He insisted at the time he was not interested in retiring.
“Succession planning is complicated,” he said. “There is the stuff that you think and the stuff that you know, the stuff that you can control and the stuff that you can’t control. You can’t control investors’ perceptions. I believe we have a very strong bench of people in senior management roles, people who have experience managing the business exactly the same way I do.”
