Schonfeld raises Us$1bil for flagship hedge fund

NEW YORK: Schonfeld Strategic Advisors raised more than Us$1bil for its flagship hedge fund, double expectations, attracting fresh money from new and existing investors following the March selloff, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Backers including sovereign wealth funds, endowments and family offices contributed to the Schonfeld Strategic Partners Fund, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is private. The inflows helped boost the amount of client capital the New York multi-manager hedgefund firm oversees to about Us$5.5bil.

Schonfeld’s money raising is the latest example of investors favoring funds already familiar to them after the Covid-19 pandemic ground economies to a halt, roiled markets and curbed investor travel to research hedge funds. Globally, investors trimmed their allocations to the US$3 trillion industry by more than US$130 billion in the 17 months through May, according to evestment data.

Heading into the second half of 2020, hedge funds are garnering the most interest from investors among 10 major asset classes, according to a Credit Suisse Group AG report last month. Yet 81% of those surveyed preferred to park money with managers already in their portfolios, instead of testing out unfamiliar firms.

Sensing the moment, Schonfeld’s peers including D.E. Shaw & Co, Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group and Millennium Management have reopened funds to new money or plan to do so. Twenty-five of these funds have pulled in about Us$15bil this year, according to one prime broker.

Schonfeld, which runs money for billionaire Steven Schonfeld as well as outside capital, reopened the Partners Fund in early April, seeking to take advantage of opportunities that emerged from the March market rout. It was the first significant capital raising by the fund, which had been largely closed to new money since 2017.

The fund, which employs quantitative, fundamental and tactical strategies, stopped accepting new money again from the beginning of this month, said the person.

Schonfeld also received fresh money into its Fundamental Equity Fund.

The Partners Fund was hammered in March, falling about 11% through the first half of the month. The firm had returned on average about 20% a year over the six years before 2020, beating the S&P 500 Index. Schonfeld morphed from a family office managing the personal fortune of Schonfeld to a hedge-fund firm in 2016.