Tiger Global posts 7.3% Q1 gain after losses in 2022

Tiger Global posts 7.3% Q1 gain after losses in 2022

Tiger Global Management’s hedge fund gained 7.3% in the first quarter as a rally in technology shares helped the firm begin to dig out from last year’s record losses.

The fund advanced 5.2% in March for its third straight positive month this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Four of the firm’s biggest stock holdings at the end of December jumped at least 20% during the first three months, led by a 76% surge for Meta Platforms Inc. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 17%.

A spokesperson for New York-based Tiger Global declined to comment.

Chase Coleman’s firm is seeking to rebound from a down year in 2021 and another in 2022, when the hedge fund tumbled 56% and the long-only fund plunged 67%. To recoup client money lost over that span, the funds would need to gain at least 144% and 216%, respectively.

Tech shares have become interesting again after being “in their own version of a recession for almost a year,” Coleman said at a luncheon Tuesday, when he recommended buying so-called FAANGs, an acronym for some of the biggest names in the sector.

Tiger Global has bounced back before. After a 26% slide in 2008, the hedge fund recouped losses by 2011, and after sinking 15% in 2016, it made back that money the following year. Still, neither of those declines quite compare with last year’s. The firm started 2023 with about $51 billion, down from roughly $100 billion in late 2021.

Tiger Global’s long-only fund returned 5.2% in March, extending this year’s gain to 9.8%, the person said.

The firm overhauled the hedge fund last year, slashing equity holdings in the first quarter and reducing stakes in Chinese firms. It also marked down private investments in its venture funds by about a third.