Archegos' Bill Hwang Allegedly Used $160 Billion in Leverage to Own 70% of One Stock

Bill Hwang of Archegos Capital allegedly used extreme leverage to amass huge positions in various stocks.
After being arrested on Wednesday, documents released by the SEC detailed how much Hwang owned as he attempted to control the price of certain stocks.
These are the seven stocks Hwang controlled before margin calls led to the loss of tens of billions of dollars.

At its peak, Archegos Capital allegedly utilized $160 billion in leverage to control the prices of various stocks without disclosing its ownership stake.

That's according to a formal complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission that was released on the same day Archegos' Bill Hwang and Patrick Halligan were arrested by the Department of Justice and charged with fraud and racketeering. Both have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers have said they are innocent.

The SEC report alleged that Hwang owned as much as 70% of the outstanding shares of a single stock, in a bid to corner the market and control its price. But that extreme concentration ultimately led to Archegos' downfall in March 2021 as a cascade of margin calls led to tens of billions of dollars of losses.

"Hwang knew that Archegos could impact markets through the exercise of its sheer buying power. For example, in June 2020, when asked in a text message by an Archegos analyst whether ViacomCBS's stock price improvement that day was 'a sign of strength,' Hwang responded, 'No. It is a sign of me buying,' followed by a 'tears of joy' or laughing emoji," the SEC complaint detailed.

"The size of Archegos's exposures to its Top 10 Holdings allowed Archegos to assert a dominant market position over the securities of these issuers," the SEC said. Archegos was able to side step normal disclosure rules by buying total return swaps on the companies, in which they allegedly deceived various banks to pull off.

These were the seven stocks that Hwang controlled via high ownership levels without disclosing the nature of his position, according to the SEC.

1. GSX Techedu

Ticker: GSX
Archegos Ownership Stake: 70%
Peak Number of Shares Owned: 101 million ($8.5 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -97.9%

2. Discovery Class A

Ticker: DISCA
Archegos Ownership Stake: Over 60%
Number Of Shares Owned: 100 million ($7.5 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -68.5%

3. IQIYI

Ticker: IQ
Archegos Ownership Stake: Over 50%
Number Of Shares Owned: 225 million ($6.3 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -84.4%

4. Paramount (formerly ViacomCBS)

Ticker: PARA
Archegos Ownership Stake: Over 50%
Number Of Shares Owned: 286 million ($28.6 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -56%

On Thursday, Tencent re-entered the list of the world's 10-most valuable companies. This photo from May 2021 shows people walking past the Tencent headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

5. Tencent Music Entertainment

Ticker: TME
Archegos Ownership Stake: Over 45%
Number Of Shares Owned: 326 million ($10.0 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -80.8%

6. Vipshop Holdings

Shipping containers in Busan Sinseondae Port Terminal. Busan, South Korea

Ticker: VIPS
Archegos Ownership Stake: 25%
Number Of Shares Owned: 169 million ($7.6 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -78%

7. Shopify

Pavlo Gonchar/Getty Images

Ticker: SHOP
Archegos Ownership Stake: 1.3%
Number Of Shares Owned: 1.7 million ($1.9 billion)
Performance Since Archegos Downfall: -60.7%

SEC alleges Archegos' Bill Hwang used $160 billion in leverage to own as much as 70% of a single company. These are the 7 biggest stakes he controlled.