Wall Street Folly

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Hedge funds feeling the pinch are looking to sublet office space

Remember when hedge fund start-ups and expansions were at fever pitch and New York City rents were driven up to close to $200 a square foot?  Well now that so many are imploding / retrenching, there's all sorts of excess office space and they're looking to sublet, not only in NYC, but in Greenwich:

AQR's largest hedge fund tumbles a miserable 15% through mid February

Major ouchie:   AQR's largest hedge fund is said to have cratered by 15% through the middle of February.  No comment from AQR on the loss according to Bloomberg....

The assets of AQR's Absolute Return fund dropped to $2.9 billion last month from $4 billion in the fourth quarter, said the people, who declined to be identified because the Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm doesn't publicly disclose the data. AQR's smaller Asset Allocation fund lost 16 percent of value.

Quantitative managers who rely on computers to make trades have struggled as global equity markets declined. Assets managed by AQR, co-founded in 1998 by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managing director Clifford Asness, slipped more than 20 percent to $8.6 billion in the past six months because of investment losses and client redemptions.

AQR's Biggest Hedge Fund Fell Almost 15% Through Mid-February - Bloomberg

AQR flagship has a rough November, down 5.8%

OUCH: We already know that November was a rough month for many hedge funds.  Just how horrible is beginning to trickle out as individual firm performance trickles out.  One fund that stepped in it in November is Cliff Asness's AQR.  According to the New York Post, their $4 billion flagship was down 5.8% during the month after losing 3.17% in October.   They're down 11.9% on the year.

AQR's Quant Loses Luster - NY Post

AQR IPO a no go: Cliff Asness hedge fund said to have had big withdrawals

While many hedge funds had a pretty profitable October, according to the NY Post, one notable fund didn't.  Cliff Asness' AQR is said to have put his funds' IPO plans on ice as a result:

AQR Capital Management, the giant Greenwich-based hedge fund, has been forced to shelve its planned initial public offering after a dismal performance caused several large investors to pull their cash from the firm's $38 billion fund, The Post has learned.

AQR Capital Management, run by former Goldman Sachs trader Cliff Asness, saw its flagship fund drop 3 percent in October, according to the fund's investors.

The performance leaves the AQR Absolute Return fund down roughly 6 percent for the year, compared with a 4 percent return for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Clipped Hedge Fund AQR Pulls Offering - New York Post

Hedge fund portfolio barfage felt far and wide; Black boxes strategies backfiring; AQR among wounded -- will planned IPO be affected?; Man Group postpones hedge fund IPO; Bernanke & Paulson wrong -- subprime flu spreading

                 

Portfolio Liquidation Triggers Turmoil Among Hedge Funds Stuck Inside A 'Black Box'' Hedge funds at risk as black box strategies unravel Man Group's U.S. hedge fund IPO seen to be delayed Bernanke, Paulson Were Wrong: Subprime Contagion Is Spreading Fund meltdown talk sends Tokyo into free-fall

AQR may be the next hedge fund to brave an IPO

In spite of the market turmoil, Cliff Asness' AQR Capital Management is considering an IPO.  They're contemplating selling a 10% stake, raising as much as $500 million.  They'll have lots of investment banking muscle behind them with Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers underwriting the deal with Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley also included in the syndicate.

AQR’s decision to press ahead with an IPO has highlighted how hedge fund listings are considered less vulnerable to recent deterioration in market conditions than the largest private equity groups.

This is because hedge funds often find ways to perform strongly in a variety of environments, while buy-out groups are more reliant on healthy bond markets for acquisitions and strong equity markets for exits.

Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, AQR was founded in 1998 by Clifford Asness and other members of the Goldman quantitative research group and now has about $35bn under management.

AQR poised to sell 10% stake in $500m IPO - Financial Times