David Fear Sets up Own Hedge Fund with $1.5B in AUM
Thunderbird Partners, a hedge fund with $1.5 billion in assets under management, has been launched by David Fear, who long ran a London-based hedge fund for the billionaire Ziff brothers.
That makes Thunderbird one of the biggest hedge-fund launches so far this year.
The
rush to get access to Mr. Fear’s stock hedge fund even as many new
start-up funds struggle to raise money underscores investors’ hunger to
park money with managers they believe can consistently generate profits.
Even as the number of funds globally has grown by more than 60% in the
last decade to an all-time high of 6,154 last year, according to
research firm eVestment, many longtime investors in hedge funds — and
some veteran traders themselves — say too few justify their fees.
Two
institutional investors who got access to Thunderbird, according to
people familiar with the matter, are University of Texas Investment
Management Co., or Utimco, which invests billions for the benefit of the
University of Texas and Texas A&M Systems, and Investure LLC, an
outsourced investment office business that manages money for colleges
and foundations, including Smith College and Middlebury College.
The
Ziffs also invested with Mr. Fear, according to people familiar with
the matter, with Dirk Ziff, the eldest brother and a close friend of Mr.
Fear’s, acting as a reference.
People
familiar with Mr. Fear, a publicity-averse Canadian who has called
London home since 2001, say his long experience managing money and his
senior position with the Ziffs helped him drum up investor interest. A
prominent family in the hedge-fund industry, the Ziffs are known for
backing some of Wall Street’s biggest names, including William Ackman,
Edward Lampert and Daniel Och, before shifting tack to start managing
their money internally in 1999.
Source: Wall Street Journal
