This is the 3rd Quarter 2008 edition of our ongoing hedge fund tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series we're doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here.
Next up is Chase Coleman's Tiger Global. Chase Coleman is yet another 'Tiger Cub,' or manager who learned their trade under the watch of Julian Robertson while at Tiger Management. We've already covered many of the 'Tiger Cub' funds' portfolios including Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Chris Shumway's Shumway Capital Partners, and Touradji Capital (Paul Touradji). And, recently, many of these managers gathered at a 'Tiger Cub' hedge fund manager panel, where they laid out investment theses for the future.
Chase Coleman attended Williams College and started Tiger Global with the blessing of Julian Robertson after learning the ways of success at Tiger Management. His focus has always been on smaller cap names and on technology. Although, he has since expanded his horizons with time. In 2007, Tiger Global returned 70%, and from 2001-2007, Coleman bolstered an average return of 47%. In terms of recent performance, they were down 14.3% in the month of September and were down 13.7% for the year at that time.
The following were their long equity, note, and options holdings as of September 30th, 2008 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.
Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Zions Bancorp (ZION)
Gushan (GU)
Huntington Bancshares (HBAN)
Marshall & Isley (MI)
Data Domain (DDUP)
Synaptics (SYNA)
Service Corp (SCI)
True Religion (TRLG)
Cavium Networks (CAVM)
Regions Financial (RF)
LDK Solar (LDK)
Comerica (CMA)
Under Armour (UA)
Istar Financial (SFI)
Vocus (VOCS)
Washington Mutual (WAMUQ)
Graco (GGG)
Beazer Homes (BZH)
Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Longtop Fin (LFT): Increased position by 3,438%
Apple (AAPL): Increased position by 426%
Visa (V): Increased position by 201%
Coach (COH): Increased position by 139%
General Motors (GM): Increased position by 105%
First Horizon (FHN): Increased position by 98%
Discovery Holding Class A (DISCA): Increased position by 66%
Lorillard (LO): Increased position by 51%
Mastercard (MA): Increased position by 22%
CSX (CSX): Increased position by 20%
American Tower (AMT): Increased position by 14%
Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
China Security (CSR): Reduced position by 55%
America Movil (AMX): Reduced position by 51%
Fifth Street Finance (FSC): Reduced position by 48%
Ambac Financial (ABK): Reduced position by 44%
Hovnanian (HOV): Reduced position by 36%
SBA Comm (SBAC): Reduced position by 30%
A-Power Energy (APWR): Reduced position by 23%
Transdigm (TDG): Reduced position by 13%
Sina Corp (SINA): Reduced position by 8%
Emcore (EMKR): Reduced position by 8%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Reduced position by 7%
Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Ctrip (CTRP)
Luminex (LMNX)
Fairpoint Comm (FRP)
Omnivision (OVTI)
ETrade (ETFC)
Conceptus (CPTS)
Utstarcom (UTSI)
Nalco Holding (NLC)
Popular (BPOP)
First Bancorp (FBP)
Sierra Wireless (SWIR)
Stec (STEC)
Greenhill (GHL)
China Finance (JRJC)
China Nepstar (NPD)
Agfeed (FEED)
Google (GOOG)
Baidu (BIDU)
Priceline (PCLN)
New Oriental Educ (EDU)
Level 3 Communications (LVLT)
Research in Motion (RIMM)
Mentor Corp (MNT)
Trustmark Corp (TRMK)
Starent Networks (STAR)
Polaris (PII)
Pachex (PAYX)
American Superconductor (AMSC)
Middleby Corp (MIDD)
Watts Water (WTS)
Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)
- American Tower (AMT): 12% of portfolio
- CSX (CSX): 11.9% of portfolio
- Mastercard (MA): 10.2% of portfolio
- Lorillard (LO): 8.7% of portfolio
- Visa (V): 6.9% of portfolio
- Qualcomm (QCOM): 5.2% of portfolio
- Longtop Finl (LFT): 4.2% of portfolio
- Transdigm (TDG): 4% of portfolio
- Apple (AAPL): 3.7% of portfolio
- America Movil (AMX): 3.6% of portfolio
- SBA Comm (SBAC): 2.9% of portfolio
- Mercadolibre (MELI): 2.6% of portfolio
- Coach (COH): 2.5% of portfolio
- Sina Corp (SINA): 2.5% of portfolio
- Zions Bancshares (ZION): 1.9% of portfolio
- General Motors (GM): 1.3% of portfolio
- Gushan (GU): 1.2% of portfolio
- Huntington Bancshares (HBAN): 1.1% of portfolio
- Marshall & Isley (MI): 1.1% of portfolio
- First Horizon National (FHN): 1.1% of portfolio
Assets from the collective holdings were $4.4 billion last quarter and were $3.3 billion this quarter. Its interesting to note that numerous other 'Tiger Cubs' have similar top positions including Lorillard (LO), Mastercard (MA), Visa (V), Apple (AAPL), and America Movil (AMX). Julian Robertson himself was even out buying some of those names as well. You can definitely see similarities in the investment process between these funds. Although Tiger Global decreased overall long equity exposure last quarter, they did so in a less severe manner than many of the other funds we've tracked. Please note that we have not detailed changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. Also, keep in mind that these filings only include long equity, notes, and options holdings. They do not reflect their cash, short portions, or holdings in other markets (currency, commodities, debt, etc). This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. The other funds we've already covered include:
- Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital
- Whitney Tilson's T2 Partners
- Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital
- Bill Ackman's Pershing Square
- Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital
- John Paulson's Paulson & Co
- David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital
- Dan Loeb's Third Point
- Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp
- Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management
- Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates
- George Soros Soros Fund Management
Overall, its been one of the worst years ever for hedge funds, as we noted in our new November hedge fund performance update. Thus, the recent moves they've made in their portfolios become all the more interesting given the way the market has played out.
More on the 'Tiger Cubs':
- 'Tiger Cub' biographies
- Hedge fund manager panel (Tiger Cubs)
- November hedge fund performance numbers
- Julian Robertson's recent buys
- October hedge fund performance numbers
- Hedge Fund Rankings
