Atticus Capital Closing Main Hedge Fund

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In a letter to investors, Atticus Capital founder Timothy Barakett announced that he is closing two hedge funds and handing back $3 billion to investors. Atticus is closing its flagship fund and a smaller vehicle, but will continue to operate its $1.2 billion Atticus European Fund.

The Wall Street Journal notes that in his letter Barakett cited personal reasons for his decision. Barakett said, "After 15 years of being singularly focused on building and managing Atticus, I believe it is time to reassess my future."

Atticus was one of the highest flying hedge-fund firms over the last decade, surging from $6 million in 1996 to $20 billion in late 2007. But 2008 was a bad year for the fund as it lost 25%. The fund is also down 6% so far in 2009, as other funds have surged on the market snap-back. Filings from the hedge fund recently shows that it has scaled back its stock positions dramatically.

Founded Atticus in 1995 and launched our first fund in January 1996 with less than $6 million under management. The Atticus Global strategy was launched in December 1996 and has compounded investor’s capital at over 19% net annually since inception.1 I am very proud of the Atticus Global track record and our net returns through July 2009 are shown below:

Atticus Global S&P 500
1 year -13.3% -20.0%
3 year 0.8% -6.2%
5 year 9.3% -0.1%
10 year 13.6% -1.2%
Inception 19.3% 3.9%
Cumulative 835.3% 62.3%