Eric Mindich Is Not Alone

Some Goldman Sachs Group alumni may be enjoying great second careers working for President Donald Trump’s administration. But for those who chose to become hedge fund managers, these are tough times for many in the Goldman diaspora.

The latest example came on Thursday when Eric Mindich, once the youngest-ever Goldman partner, announced he is shutting down his $7 billion multistrategy hedge fund firm,伊顿公园资本管理公司, and returning all outside capital. It’s a stunning reversal of fortune for Mindich, who raised a whopping $3.5 billion when he launched his firm in 2004 and had produced years of solid gains. But his flagship hedge fund fell 9.4 percent in 2016 and eked out just a 0.5 percent gain in the first two months of this year. His assets today amount for half of what he was managing in mid-2011.

“Recently, a combination of industry headwinds, a difficult market environment and, importantly, our own disappointing 2016 results have challenged our ability to continue to maintain the scale and scope we believe necessary to pursue our investment program consistent with our founding principles,” Mindich, 49, told investors in a letter dated March 23. He plans to return 40 percent of all investors’ main portfolio balances by the end of April.

Mindich’s decision to shut down is somewhat surprising, given his age and the fact that last year’s performance came after several years of relatively decent gains. Eton Park returned 6 percent in both 2014 and 2015 after posting double-digit gains the two previous years.

Last year’s loss also was not so steep that it would have been very difficult to dig out from. In fact, sources say last year the firm had net capital inflows.

伊顿公园的主要对冲基金专注于五种策略：股票长/短、事件导向投资、信用/不良债务、衍生品和市场策略以及投资组合保护。

在高盛，明迪奇曾在该行传奇般的风险套利部门工作，由前财政部长罗伯特鲁宾（Robert Rubin）领导，该部门培养出了丹尼尔•奥赫（Daniel Och）和理查德•佩里（Richard Perry）等对冲基金界名人。但在过去的一年里，Och、Perry和其他高盛校友都遇到了动荡。

For example, last year Richard Perry announced he planned to wind down his hedge fund firm,Perry Capital, after suffering protracted losses. At Goldman, he helped to hire several people who also went on to hedge fund stardom, including Mindich, Och, and Thomas Steyer, founder of Farallon Capital Management, who retired several years ago.

In 2015 Fortress Investment Group closed down its Fortress Macro funds, and Michael Novogratz, who founded the firm’s liquid markets business in 2002, said he would retire. He had spent 11 years at Goldman, becoming a partner in 1998. At one time during his tenure, Novogratz served as president of Goldman Sachs Latin America.

On Wednesday, Edward Lampert’s ESL Investments suffered a near-death blow when its biggest investment, Sears Holdings Corp., warned that the survival of its disastrous-performing Sears and Kmart stores is in doubt. ESL had already lost most of its outside investors because of its obsessive, ill-fated commitment to Sears, which undermined his hedge fund career and reputation. Lampert also worked on Rubin’s famed risk arbitrage desk.

Two ex–Goldman partners have run into legal trouble. Last yearOch’s Och-Ziff Capital Management其OZ非洲管理子公司去年9月解决了联邦贿赂指控，在过去13个月里，该公司已遭受约130亿美元的赎回。去年9月，包括OZ Africa Management在内的这家多战略公司同意支付4.13亿美元来解决这些费用。人道协调厅本人同意支付近220万美元，以补偿他在违反《反海外腐败法》方面所起的作用。

Och在高盛工作了11年多，最初从事风险套利业务，后来在股票部门主管自营交易，最终成为美国股票交易的联席主管。

Meanwhile, last year Leon Cooperman and his New York firm欧米加顾问基金were accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of trading with insider information and other securities transgressions. His trial is scheduled for November.

Cooperman spent more than 25 years at Goldman, including serving as general partner of Goldman Sachs & Co. and as chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, before launching Omega in 1991.