著名的对冲基金公司CQS幸存下来——但不是Because of Its Hedge Funds

For a man whose flagship hedge fund was down more than 50 percent at one point last year, Michael Hintze sounds surprisingly upbeat.

On a chilly winter afternoon, Hintze, 67, phones from London to talk about his firm’s reckoning this past spring, a time when the flagship fund’s structured credit instruments went terribly wrong and the firm’s positioning amid market turmoil sent that and one other fund plummeting to their worst-ever losses — wiping out billions of assets in mere weeks.

这是一个非常罕见的CQS偶然偶尔，一个基于伦敦的对冲基金，自1999年成立以来，自从其成立以来，投资者可靠地为投资者提供了可靠的钱。其旗舰定向机会基金自成立以来，其旗舰定向机会基金的平均近14％的涨幅差2005年。

在2020年急剧发生变化，因为冠状病毒被蹂躏全球范围内的全球经济，债券市场在害怕流动性时疯狂地旋转。辐射击中资产CQS主要投资 - 结构化和复杂的信用 - 特别是硬，因为HINTZE指出给投资者的信in November. CQS’s Directional Opportunities, which accounts for 10 percent of the firm’s assets, lost 33 percent in March and a further 17 percent in April. The wretched performance, paired with upheaval in the executive ranks, took a toll on the firm, which cut some 50 jobs, scrapped a planned expansion into equities, and saw assets shrink by $3 billion in the short term, according to a June 2020彭博会报告。

But it also sparked a near-forensic appraisal of the entire firm’s operations, with Hintze and other executives meticulously combing through individual positions in every portfolio and reexamining all aspects of day-to-day decision-making. Ultimately, CQS reorganized teams, revamped portfolios, and put in place a new board executive committee and a senior partners’ group. Both groups were designed to help strengthen succession planning at the firm — a sore spot given the sudden resignation in January 2020 of Xavier Rolet, a longtime Hintze associate who had been hired to much fanfare to run the firm scarcely more than a year earlier.

Hinzze在11月的信中宣布这些变化，并在随后的电话中阐述了它们亚博赞助欧冠。

“世界上颠倒了。这实际上使我们能够真正考虑的东西，“他说。“我们需要简化和关注我们的策略。我们必须回到核心 - 它的信誉。“

Hintze says the firm has been able to accomplish this thanks to “a reenergized management committee and a reenergized investment process,” and as he lays out the firm’s transformation — and the “exciting” investment opportunities he sees ahead — his enthusiasm is palpable.

但它是否成立于现实？

自3月以来，通过公司的表现来判断，似乎是。定向机会在10月至10月份张贴了五个月，而公司的ABS基金在同期上涨了37％。该公司的信贷多资产基金从3月底增加了16％，几乎删除了今年的缩编。

据A仍然，定向机会在2020年下降约36％金融时报报告。并且突然下降的严重程度将不可避免地提高艰难的 - 和公平的问题关于CQS如何管理风险。

Says Don Steinbrugge, founder of hedge fund consultancy Agecroft Partners, a drawdown of the magnitude CQS’s flagship fund sustained in March and April “is well above what is tolerable for most investors,” especially the type of institutional client that CQS favors.

他补充道，“将使他们在未来几年内为他们的对冲基金战略提高资产。”

更重要的是，虽然其资产已稳定，但该公司目前正在管理较少比例的对冲基金资产。事实上，其非对冲基金产品去年吸引了大量流入，抵消了对冲基金的一些损失和赎回。它设定为在资产7500万美元的资产中发射总回报信贷策略，最近赢得了3.5亿欧元（4.21亿美元）的任务，以管理可换股债券的组合。但这些类型的资金赚取了对冲基金的费用的一小部分。

这是一个点静音承认。但他认为，他的公司对非对冲基金资产的枢转是故意的，多年来。例如，“世界正在谈论弹性” - 例如供应链，经济和医疗保健系统。“对我来说，恢复力正在建立一个能够前进的公司，”Hinzze说。“如果对冲基金[行业]偏离偏出兴趣，它就不会有人帮助任何人 - 顺便说一下。什么不是为人民赚钱的能力。“

这就是为什么Hinzze几年前开始建立CQS的长期业务，他最初会遇到一些阻力。现在，他说，这些努力促进了他认为通过2020年初的测试所携带的恢复力。

所有这些都表明CQS最终将超越去年的崩溃。但它可能看起来比以前的那样非常不同。

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When discussinghis military days — he was a captain in the Australian army — Hintze is quick to point out that he was never involved in an actual firefight. But he admits that the events of 2020 brought to mind the chaos of some of his military exercises.

“当我接受陆军培训时，他们训练过我们从最古怪的地方推出我们的东西，”Hinze说。

躲避危险并迅速适应新情况的能力可能嵌入他的DNA中。Hintze的祖父母逃离了俄罗斯革命并在中国定居。但中国共产党革命迫使家人再次移动，他们在澳大利亚定居。

Hintze took an interest in the financial markets as a child, according to the Bloomberg profile: As a young man he took earnings from odd jobs and Christmas gifts and poured them into Chrysler bonds, which earned a substantial premium to his savings account.

在他的陆军Stint之后，Hintze曾在澳大利亚担任电气设计工程师。但财务招手。他从1982年赢得了哈佛商学院的MBA，并于1982年加入了纽约萨洛蒙兄弟的实习级，研究了固定收入交易台。1984年，他搬到了高盛萨克斯，通过这些精英等级崛起，最终成为伦敦的U.K.股票交易，在加入瑞士信贷之前。在那里，Hinzze建立了公司的敞篷和量化战略业务，并在1999年旋转了CQS。

Given his pedigree and successful investment record, Hintze didn’t take long to attract assets. Strong performance followed. During the financial crisis of 2008, perhaps the firm’s first major test, CQS pared losses in Directional Opportunities to the single digits and posted a 73 percent gain in its ABS fund — remarkable feats in a year when the average hedge fund lost 20 percent and global stock markets cratered by 40 percent. The following year, Directional Opportunities surged by 56 percent.

Hintze became known for making contrarian bets that panned out. In 2014 he predicted oil would fall, from $110 per barrel to as low as $40, according to the Bloomberg article. Prices passed that milestone and then fell further, hitting $26.20 in 2016. That year the fund returned 30.4 percent.

正如它所碰巧的那样，油价是在过去3月份的定向机会基金的赌注中的赌注之一。CQS已经出售短期信用违约掉期保护 - 基本上是针对违约的一系列保险 - 关于大流行早期破产的两家公司：Chesapeake Energy Corp.和Whiting Petroleum Corp.（因为从破产中出现了。）

该公司还为航空公司德国·汉莎航空公司的债务购买了信贷保护 - 与其他航空公司一样，这一业务蒸发了世界各地的瞬间政府发布了宿舍的命令来打击冠状病毒大流行。突然间，保证了这些公司的债务的成本飙升，迫使CQS揭示欧洲抵押债务义务的第五个债务组合，以提高现金以满足抵押品需求，但Hintze在彭博堡概况中解释。

CQS构建了一些交易，如所谓的第一损投资。在这一战略中，投资银行汇集了个别公司的违约保护，并将其切成风险范围的关键;一些投资者同意吸收影响投资组合的第一个损失。这些关联人提供更大的回报以换取风险增加，策略可能是非常有利可图的，特别是如果职位没有羽毛，而且CQS没有，根据金融时报。

But if an exogenous shock occurs, the losses can be devastating.

The coronavirus pandemic was arguably the mother of all exogenous shocks — and, in retrospect, CQS’s portfolio was uniquely vulnerable to the exact disaster scenarios that played out in March. One investor told theFT.令人讨厌的是，公司的对冲是一个“灾难”。更重要的是，定向机会并不是唯一的基金，这些资金令人不好。ABS交易团队输了more than 43 percentin March.

虽然没有人可能会出现CQS，但不能预测冠状病毒危机 - 也许是预计一家公司购买足够的尾部风险保护，以涵盖掩盖地球的流星，仍然是速度和纯粹的速度它的3月下降的深度。更糟糕的是，旗舰基金于4月份的两位数缩减在全球市场击退的时候发生了。

Amin Rajan, chief executive of investment consulting firm CREATE-Research, says the staggering numbers serve as a stark reminder to investors that hedge funds “can blow up spectacularly despite their implicit proposition of uncorrelated absolute returns in good times and bad. CQS was a case in point.”

It was all the more stunning given the sterling reputation CQS enjoyed among investors, Rajan adds.

Hinzze承认投资组合没有为大流行造成的损害做好准备。但他说这不是基金根本没有任何风险分析。

“进入整个事情，有刺激，有全球增长;[我们]能够非常清楚地思考这个全球增长对公司的意义，“他指出。“我们对此做了很多工作。”

问题，Hinzze说，“地球上无处可见我们认为我们是在某种情况下的情况”，航空公司会突然停止运营。带美国航空公司。“我们看着燃料成本上涨，个别市场崩落 - 我们没有做过[一个场景]会有全球整体关闭。”

在狂欢节中，“很明显，我们必须开始转换我们的投资组合，”Hintze说。

对于定向机会基金，由Simon Tannett领导的研究团队在投资组合中审查了每一项信用。最终，该公司减少或削减了几项非核策略，据Hintze的11月份给客户表示，允许基金保护其核心结构化信贷组合中的“重要嵌入值”。

Hintze consolidated the management team of the ABS fund under a single CIO: Jason Walker, a ten-year veteran of the firm who had been co-CIO of the fund since 2016. Walker lightened the fund’s hedges after the crisis hit, positioning it well to take advantage of the recovery.

Meanwhile, the multiasset credit team, headed by Craig Scordellis, reviewed the firm’s investment process and all of its holdings at the time of the crisis. Ultimately, CQS concluded that it made sense to keep the positions it had held through the crisis, and it even hired four new investment professionals to the team. The moves appear to have paid off, given the gains in the ABS fund and the Credit Multi-Asset Fund for the rest of the year.

In the November letter, Hintze also points to strong performance by other CQS funds — although those funds are much smaller.

3.4亿美元CQS全球相对价值基金由Prakash Narayanan管理，1月份推出，并于11月获得了39.4％。根据这封信，CQS亚洲宏基金上涨了8.9％，长期CQS全球可换股基金返还8.1％至11月。

At the same time, the firm revealed that its long-only investment trust business has performed well — particularly the CQS Golden Prospect Precious Metals fund, which gained 67.7 percent through November.

Of course, the long-only funds, given their lower fees, are a much smaller contributor to CQS’s bottom line. But Hintze asserts that these funds are an increasingly important part of the firm’s future.

“人们喜欢谈论我的基金 - 这是重要的，但它是我们资产的10％。GRV基金做得非常好。我们即将获得换人奖励授权的额外€3.5亿欧元。““费用不是2和20，但是让我们清楚，它支付了账单，它允许我们雇用人员，它允许我们提供10到12个培训。这是真正的弹性。“

让主要资金的表现回到轨道上有挑战。但与此同时，该公司忙着审查和支撑其投资组合，它还在其手中进行了业务问题。

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当CQS雇用时former London Stock Exchange CEO Xavier Rolet in late 2018, the move was meant to formalize a long-running arrangement in which Hintze focused on investing while others handled the day-to-day operations. Rolet’s appointment was intended to consolidate the business functions under a single individual.

“Xavier和我彼此认识35年，在我们的财务职业生涯早期合作，”Hintze在宣布罗克茨雇用的一份声明中表示。“有相互信任和尊重。Xavier是一个非常诚信的人，我所知道的最好的首席执行官之一。“

但几乎不到一年后，罗布雷已经消失了。

CQS announced the news in January 2020 in a terse statement, saying he was stepping down to serve in an advisory role “for reasons unconnected with CQS” but not giving those reasons. Rolet, who now serves as an independent non–executive director on several corporate boards, declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement.

当ROLET离开时，他的几个主要雇员与他一起去了，包括Serge Harry副首席执行官哈利和数据科学和CRO Ahmad Deek。CQS提交了一个计划的长短股权战略，并选择了拓扑团队，并在新公司，Landseer Capital，以及投资其资金。但是，根据彭博会报告，这笔交易也跌倒了。（Lavingseer的首席执行官和股票上的股票首席执行官Paul Graham没有回复评论请求。）同时，另一个高级投资人员，尼克帕帕斯离开，留下了与前CQS的苦恼债务基金启动特殊情况投资，Ivelina Green。

媒体报道显示,这些举措之际,CQS had decided to abandon an ambitious expansion plan, choosing instead to retrench and return to its core credit focus after it hit turbulence. Other reports hinted at tension between Rolet and some longtime CQS staffers. A Bloomberg editorial headline crowed: “Drifting Hedge Fund Star Could Do With a New Co-Pilot.”

Hintze不会在谣言中绘制，但承认尽管他与rolet的长期和友好的关系，但是顶部有两个人并没有锻炼身体。

“这可能是我最大的错误，”他说。“我纠正了，以确保有一个人负责 - 这是大事。”

The timing of Rolet’s departure nearly ran headlong into the crater of the firm’s performance. But it also forced Hintze to reckon with how he wanted the firm to operate in the future — and what he wanted its management team to look like. Hintze says that in the midst of the chaos, two people stood out in rising to the challenge: Soraya Chabarek, the firm’s global head of distribution, and board chairman Michael Peat.

“我想和那些能够充满活力和乐于助人的人合作，”Hinze说。“当我们重塑球队时，这些人加强了。那么为什么我不应该给他们拍摄？“

为此，他促进了Chabarek作为公司董事会执行委员会的成员，以及Hintze和Peat。本集团负责构建CQS的策略并确定业务的总体方向。据该公司11月份给客户表示，Hintze还建立了一个高级伙伴的小组，以解决公司的未来（阅读：继承计划）“，并加强高级合作伙伴股权参与”。除了Hinze之外，小组成员还是Chabarek，Peat，Narayanan，Scordellis和Walker。Hintze还加强了公司的毕业生招聘计划，以帮助确保未来的强大人才管道。

他自豪地指出，该公司最近雇用的一半是女性。虽然他加快了他们被雇用的优点，但Hinzze表示他们增加了对思想的多样性，这对该公司产生了重大影响。

“我想要企业弹性，”他说。“我可以获得这一点的唯一方法是通过思维，人们和努力的多样性。有一群人想要把它带到一个下一级。“

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How CQS will get在2020年的骚动后，下一个水平现在是外人，投资者和公司本身最紧迫的问题。

Rajan at CREATE-Research notes that it’s not out of the question that the firm could retain clients and even attract new ones. Some current investors may chalk up the losses to a black-swan event that the firm couldn’t have planned for, he says, and give CQS another chance given its longevity and historical performance before the brutal drawdowns.

“Covid Crash的速度和规模是绝对前所未有的，”他说。“当人们醒来的时候意识到正在发生的事情，卖出和太早购买为时已晚。”

虽然有些人在其投资再次兑现的情况下，一些可能会兑现，但如果只是因为许多人在获得足够资产以资助其负债的情况下，许多人都愿意投注公司，愿意投注该公司，以便为其负债提供资金并绝望地面临资金在这种较长较长的利率环境中获取任何生物。

“If a fund manager had a good record, came a cropper last year, and then recovered, they will be willing to give CQS the benefit of the doubt” because they need to find higher-yielding assets one way or another, Rajan says. And if CQS bounces back, he adds, “that recovery will not go unnoticed. They stood out among their peers. They’ll get the benefit of the doubt where others [may not].”

He also thinks investors have been pleased with the firm’s organizational changes.

“One of the things they have been worried about is key-person risk. Hintze has been very much the center of gravity,” he says. “These changes that have been announced have been welcomed, because people do worry about the key-person risk. It’s time CQS had proper structures.”

但是，如果公司希望吸引新客户，则可能会专注于唯一的业务，这对最近亏损的损失不利，拉国笔记。他说：“CQS需要吸引新客户的长期资金的背面，并提高了公司的深层技能和人才水平的舒适程度。“必须通过举例和成就来完成，而不是放入招股说明书。”

Given the challenges actively managed long-only funds in particular have faced, that won’t be an easy task. But Hintze is not only undaunted — he’s excited, in no small part thanks to the investment opportunities that have sprung up as a result of the crisis.

“一旦你强制经济不再存在，你必须开始像所有人一样开始刺激，”他说。“真的很酷的是你有一个你现在有一个你的工具将钱推入你并不总是拥有的系统。您在2008年看到的这种量化宽松使我们能够在全球中进行日本类型的结构，中央银行可以继续购买财政部的债务。“

Hinzze也对新委员会感到兴奋，并且该公司去年早些时候的公司如何风化。正如他所指出的那样，该公司在危机中间的长期基金筹集了35亿欧元，而CQS现在的资产略微管理187亿美元 - 超过一年前，35％多于三年前。

对于所有被遗弃的扩张计划的谈话，Hinzze表示，该公司未侧重于将资产增长到特定水平。

“忘记大小 - 我希望一家为客户提供服务的公司，”他解释道。“我们有一个弹性平台，允许我们这样做。这些市场在一角钱转换。我们需要有能够枢转的人。市场变化。你必须随身努力改变，确保您的客户与您同在，确保您足够谦虚，确保您的运营声音。“

Hintze坚持公司现在已经完成了所有这些事情 - 而且他也许是在几个月内第一次，热情地对其未来。这不仅仅是为了企业，而是为了资金本身。

“Now we’ve turned it around, and we’re going for it,” he says. “This is just so cool, what’s going on here. There is so much going on! I’ve got another 50 percent year in me.”