21/07/2010 Author: Zaki Abushal

Key-man departures weigh heavy on hedge fund returns 

The scourge of hedge funds reared its head once again last week, when one time darling of Gartmore, Guillame Rambourg, finally decided to walk away from the recently listed asset manager. Earlier in the year, the key-man syndrome afflicted Horseman when, following the departure of its star manager John Horseman, investors pulled $2.5bn in capital.

Aside from lost assets, what effect have the departures had on performance? So far, not great. Horseman Global is down four of the six months of trading and is at -9.5% for the year.  Horseman European Select fund has fared a little better, down 4.3% YTD, but both trail the wider hedge fund equities indices for the year.

Assets continue to fall; Horseman Global Ltd is down at $351m as of June and the LP version is as low as $23m. Both struggled in May and June and didn’t make up enough in the early part of the year to offset the losses.