Robert Citrone, the billionaire hedge fund manager who is known as an emerging markets specialist, had been on a pretty good run in recent years, scoring nice returns and increasing his assets under management to $15 billion. But Citrone, who works out of Norwalk, Ct., had a tough go of it in March.
Citrone’s two main hedge funds fell by some 10% in March, pulling down their investment performance deep into negative territory for the year. His Discovery Global Opportunities Fund is down 7.46% in 2014 and his Discovery Global Macro Fund is down 9.17% this year through the end of March, according to an investor report. The down performance in March is a swift reversal for Citrone, who last year was one of the top-performing hedge fund managers, knocking out net returns in the 27% range. Still, Citrone’s funds are known for going through volatile periods.
A so-called Tiger cub who used to work for famed hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, Citrone started his Discovery Capital Management hedge fund firm in 1999 and the only serious down year for him was in 2008, when his Discovery Global Opportunities Fund lost 33% during the financial crisis. The Discovery Global Macro Fund was down very slightly in 2011.
The first quarter of 2014 has been tough on many macro managers and those who specialize in the technology sectors, strategies with which Citrone is associated. Citrone’s emphasis on global markets means that he and his team reportedly travel around the world hunting for investments and are awake in the early hours of the morning, keeping an eye on European and Asian markets.
But global markets have been choppy this year. A filing Discovery Capital Management made with the Securities & Exchange Commission shows that going into this year Citrone’s firm had a sizeable position in Yandex, the Russian search-engine company that has seen its stock drop by 29% this year. Discovery Capital Management also had fairly large positions in companies like
A spokesperson for Discovery Capital Management declined to comment.
