Blackrock fund Global Ascent to be wound down
Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, is shuttering another of its macro funds, citing headwinds facing the industry.
The Global Ascent Fund, which makes bets on stock, bond and currency markets, will return money to investors.
The fund’s assets under management had reportedly fallen to under $1bn (£660bn), having previously numbered multiple billions.
In a statement, BlackRock said: “We believe that redeeming the Global Ascent Fund was the right thing to do for our clients.”
The latest closure follows a slew of high profile shutdowns over the past two years as hedge funds have recorded some of their worst monthly performances since before the global financial crisis, research from Hedge Fund Research (HFR) has shown.
The tumbling oil price, volatility in Asia, and the surge in the value of the Swiss franc as it decoupled from the euro in January all weighed on global funds.
According to analysts at HFR, 417 hedge funds wound up operations in the first six months of this year.
In October, Fortress Investment Group closed its global macro hedge fund, as did the well known London-based Liongate Capital Management LLP, at its peak controlling billions of pounds.
Earlier in the year, Bain Capital’sAbsolute Return Capital hedge fund threw in the towel after three years of consecutive losses, and London-based $1.2bn fund Comac Capital shut its doors in January.
BlackRock hasn’t managed to avoid other closures either.
“Over the past several years, we have closed, on average, more than 200 funds a year,” the statement read. However, BlackRock currently runs around 3,500 funds around the world.