- Tiger Global has lost $17 billion in 2022 in one of the worst runs for a hedge fund in history, LCH Investments said.
- The fund has now wiped out around two-thirds of the cumulative gains it had made for investments since it was founded in 2001.
- Tiger has been hit by a major stock-market sell-off that has whacked speculative tech companies in particular.
Hedge fund Tiger Global roared in 2020 and early 2021 as its huge bets on tech companies paid off. But the dramatic market sell-off this year has left the investment company licking its wounds.
Tiger has racked up losses of $17 billion so far in 2022, according to LCH Investments, in one of the biggest drops in hedge fund history.
Its dire performance this year has erased roughly two-thirds of the cumulative gains Tiger had made for investors since Chase Coleman founded the firm in 2001, LCH, an authority on hedge funds’ performance, told Insider.
Tiger Global shot to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic as it bet big on fast-growing technology companies, in a period when government and central bank stimulus was boosting markets.
In 2020, the fund made $10.4 billion, according to LCH. At the end of that year, Coleman was seen as one of the best hedge fund managers of all time, having brought in $26.5 billion since 2001.
But the market started to turn against Tiger in the last part of 2021, as inflation surged and investors became increasingly concerned that the
Federal Reserve
would hike interest rates, bringing to an end the easy-money era that had boosted many stocks.
Tiger lost $1.5 billion in 2021, but has been bleeding cash this year as the Fed has raised rates aggressively, with more hikes likely. The fund had around $35 billion under management at the start of 2021, LCH data showed.
According to hedge fund data provider WhaleWisdom, Tiger’s biggest holdings at the start of the year were Chinese e-retailer JD.com; US tech giant Microsoft; and Singapore consumer internet company Sea Limited.
JD.com had tumbled 23% this year as of Monday’s close; Microsoft was down 19%; and Sea Limited had plunged 70%.
The LCH data was first reported by the Financial Times. Tiger Global declined to comment.