Hedge fund Millennium’s stake sale
For the first time in its 36-year history, Millennium Management’s billionaire founder Izzy Englander parted with equity in the firm as it offloaded a stake to a group of investors.
The 15 per cent stake sale values Millennium at about $14bn and is the latest move by the hedge fund group to prepare for life beyond its founder, who is in his 70s, writes Costas Mourselas.
In an email to staff on Monday, the New York-based hedge fund said it had sold the “minority, passive equity interest in Millennium’s management company” to a group that included some of its largest institutional investors.
The equity investments, which would be worth about $2bn for a 15 per cent stake, were made through funds managed by Goldman Sachs’ Petershill group, which invests in hedge funds and private equity firms.
“This transaction is the latest step in our evolution and further positions Millennium for the future,” the email said. The firm declined to comment.
Millennium is one of the pioneers of a multi-manager hedge fund structure, where hundreds of trading teams known as “pods” operate across markets rather than a few star traders.
The strategy has enabled Millennium to accumulate $79bn in assets under management and become one of a select few hedge fund giants that dominate the industry.
As well as bringing in outside investors to the management company, senior staff at the hedge fund were also due to participate in the stake sale.
Millennium had already moved most of its fund investors into a longer-term share class that increases the time it takes to withdraw capital to five years, similar to a private equity vehicle. The typical hedge fund might impose a redemption period of between a month and a year.