Brevan shuts up emerging fund after a poor run
EUROPE’S biggest hedge fund has closed its $2.3bn flagship emerging market fund after it lost millions of dollars due to poor performance, another victim of the recent rout in emerging market stocks.
Brevan Howard, which manages $40bn, has shut the emerging markets strategies master fund with immediate effect after it plunged 15 per cent last year and failed to reverse the losses this year after a 1.6 per cent loss.
The fund’s Geneva-based manager, Brevan Howard partner Geraldine Sundstrom, has resigned from the firm following the fund’s closure, it emerged yesterday.
A spokesman for Brevan Howard declined to comment.
The closure underscores both the deep problems in emerging markets and the strict trading discipline Brevan Howard employs.
Emerging market stocks and bonds have suffered since last year after the Federal Reserve started to push forward with its plans to taper quantitative easing. Fears over economic growth in China and other crises in Argentina and Turkey have further upset investors.
Brevan Howard’s flagship master fund has never lost money since its inception, even in the 2008 market downturn. Observers say this is because of its risk systems: it cuts the amount of money a trader has to trade with if they underperform.