Nick Evans writes that the asset management world has lost one of its greatest and most influential money managers – and one of its most indefatigable and inspirational backers and mentors of up-and-coming investment talent – with the death of hedge fund pioneer and Tiger Management founder Julian Robertson at the age of 90.
Along with other luminaries like George Soros and Michael Steinhardt, Robertson’s Tiger operation spearheaded the rise of the hedge fund industry in the 1980s and 1990s as a major new force in asset management – generating heady returns for its investors, and spawning the emergence of a whole swathe of talented managers who went on to found their own successful investment firms.
Formed in 1980 after Robertson had left his post as CEO of Kidder Peabody’s asset management arm Webster for a sabbatical in New Zealand, New York-based Tiger grew from assets under management of just USD8 million at inception to more than USD20 billion at its peak – achieving a compound return of over 30 per cent a year over two decades.
Famously, Robertson decided to shut down the Tiger funds and return capital to investors in early 2000 – on the very eve of the tech bust and ensuing equity bear market – after the firm, which was rooted in contrarian value-based long and short investing, had suffered hefty losses and redemptions in the internet-fuelled TMT growth stock craze of the late 1990s.
Regarded by many as one of the shrewdest and most intensive analysts of companies and stocks, Robertson said in his final letter to Tiger investors in March 2000 that “there is no point in subjecting our investors to risk in a market which I frankly do not understand”.
He also added that, amid the triumphs and setbacks that he and his partners had experienced during Tiger’s 20-year run, “the best part by far has been the opportunity to work closely with a unique cadre of co-workers and investors”.
And so began the extraordinary phenomenon of the ‘Tiger cubs’ (and, more recently ‘Tiger grandcubs’) in the emergence, with Robertson’s backing and mentorship, of a whole generation of new independent hedge fund managers – many of whose firms have also grown to become some of the most prominent names in the industry, both in the US and beyond.
Lee Ainslie’s Maverick, Steve Mandel’s Lone Pine, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking, Robert Citrone’s Discovery, John Griffin’s Blue Ridge, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue, and Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global are among the many firms that have become leaders in the US hedge fund world – while, in the UK, Egerton and Tosca also had strong connections with Tiger.
In all, Robertson is reckoned to have been involved, directly or indirectly, with more than 200 new hedge fund firms that have emerged over the past two decades or so – representing hundreds of billions of dollars in assets under management.
Outside of his lifelong interest in investing and investment talent, Robertson and his family – and many of his ex-Tiger mentees – have been major philanthropists over more than 25 years, with estimates suggesting that he contributed more than USD2 billion to charitable causes during his lifetime.
Many of his proteges have paid fulsome tribute to Robertson’s ability and influence, with one describing him simply as “a brilliant investor, an incredible mentor, a great contributor to society, and a great friend”.
