UPDATE 2-Louis Bacon's Moore Capital to return outside money -letter By Lawrence Delevingne and Svea Herbst-Bayliss , Reuters•November 21, 2019 UPDATE 2-Louis Bacon's Moore Capital to return outside money -letter (New throughout, adds details from letter and background) By Lawrence Delevingne and Svea Herbst-Bayliss Nov 21 (Reuters) - Louis Moore Bacon, the billionaire hedge fund manager known for his prescient macroeconomic bets over more than three decades, plans to return money from outside investors in Moore Capital Management, LP, according to a letter sent to investors on Thursday and seen by Reuters. "Although this has not been an easy decision," Bacon wrote, "it will allow me the space to step away for significant periods of time when my other interests abound without the ongoing weight and responsibility of looking after public investors’ capital." A spokesman for Moore verified that the letter was authentic but declined further comment. The Financial Times had previously reported the development, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. After returning outside capital, the New York-based firm will continue to invest on behalf of Bacon and other Moore principals, according to the letter. Bacon, 63, acknowledged "disappointing results" for his main funds in recent years amid "challenging trading conditions" for his core strategy based on "macro" movements of currencies, interest rates and other securities globally. He also noted that competition for talent and pressure to lower fees had "led to a challenging business model" for funds like Moore. Still, Bacon said he was proud of his investment record: net annualised returns of 17.6% and 15% for his main Remington and Moore Global Investors funds. Moore's main funds have returned low single digits so far this year, according to the letter. Other global macro hedge funds have gained 5.33 percent in 2019, according to Hedge Fund Research, after low single digit returns in 2016 and 2017 and a 4% loss in 2018. Moore managed $8.9 billion as of Dec. 31, according to a regulatory filing. Bacon wrote that the funds he was returning capital from will have cumulatively paid out around $19 billion to investors. Bacon, who founded Moore in 1989, has long been considered a legend among macro traders along with Stanley Druckenmiller and George Soros. Also billionaires, they too decided to stop managing money for outside investors a few years ago. Druckenmiller, who famously helped Soros earn $1 billion by betting against the British pound, shuttered his fund in 2010 one year before Soros made the same decision. "This privatisation," Bacon wrote in the letter, "will allow me more personal time for a large family, philanthropic pursuits and to continue to develop a number of sports oriented properties—all with the flexibility to ‘stay in the picture’ or not as things develop." (Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne and Svea Herbst in New York and Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and David Gregorio) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-louis-bacons-moore-capital-142257267.html
Moore Capital ‘Didn’t Try That Hard’ at Succession A glimpse inside Louis Bacon’s big decision to cash out clients. Leanna Orr February 07, 2020 Louis Bacon (Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg) Moore Capital Management never found an heir to founder Louis Bacon because, at least in part, Bacon didn’t want a successor. “We tried it; we failed,” Moore Capital’s president Elaine Crocker said of succession planning during a Thursday session at the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit. “We didn’t try that hard to be perfectly honest.” Moore Capital shocked many in the industry last fall by choosing tocease managing outside clients’ moneyafter nearly 30 years in that business, and simply trade its own assets. TheFinancial Timesfirst reported in November that Moore was closing down, which Crocker still disputes as inaccurate. The media coverage — wayward or otherwise — “rushed us into returning client capital,” Crocker said. The organization transitioned to “30 traders trading the proprietary capital of the firm, which isn’t quite the same as closing.” Video: Economist Perspective: Battle of the Yield Curves[/paste:font] Successfully handing down the reins from founder to heir is theexception among hedge funds, not the rule. Crocker could think of only one firm to actually pull it off. “It’s not so much the inability to succession plan — although I’d never say we’re great at it as an industry — it’s the desire of the manager,” said Crocker, who many see as an all-time great developer of hedge fund talent. [IIDeep Dive:She’s the Real-Life Wendy Rhodes. She Still Hates “Billions.”] Transitioning the job of lead portfolio manager from one generation to the next means both of them working in tandem for an extended period, likely years. “Sharing portfolio management is not a particularly easy thing,” Crocker observed. Differences in “work ethics, risk management,” and innate style can derail the process, she added. “In macro hedge funds, the portfolios take on almost the DNA of the manager,” she went on. “Sometimes sharing seems to be a good idea, but it isn’t.” https://www.institutionalinvestor.c...ore Capital Didnt Try That Hard at Succession