George Soros has found a new macro man to help run his $26 billion fortune.
Soros is hiring Adam Fisher, the chief investment officer of CommonWealth Opportunity Capital, as a money manager focusing on global macroeconomic trades, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Fisher, who counted Soros Fund Management as one of his biggest investors, is winding down his $2 billion hedge fund firm to join Soros in coming weeks, the people said.
Fisher is one of the first big hires by Dawn Fitzpatrick, who joined Soros Fund Management as the chief investment officer earlier this year from UBS Asset Management. The family office hired her to use her asset-allocation experience to diversify the investing style Soros had been known for. Still, the goal is to maintain its legacy of one of the most successful macro firms of all time, Soros’s former deputy chairman and president Robert Soros said in an interview in June.
Fitzpatrick also recently added three other investment professionals, according to one of the people. The firm tapped Candlewood Investment Group’s Phil DeSantis to build out its high-grade credit strategy and debt capital markets, Chris Gaulin from Maverick Capital as a money manager covering consumer and healthcare sectors, and Joe Capone from Balyasny Asset Management as a manager overseeing financial services companies.
For Fisher, joining Soros will mark the closure of his nine-year-old company, which managed about $800 million of the billionaire’s fortune and counts Brevan Howard Asset Management as a client and part owner.
Representatives for Fisher and Soros declined to comment.
While the fund has beaten many of its macro competitors since its inception -- posting an annual average return of 9.8 percent -- it has lagged behind soaring global stock markets. The CommonWealth Opportunity Master Fund lost 2.6 percent this year through June, documents show, while the average macro fund was flat.
Soros has two macro teams that focus primarily on emerging markets. Yet it has been searching for a global macro manager after losing some key traders with the departure of former chief investment officer Scott Bessent at the end of 2015. Like his predecessors, Bessent made his career wagering on macroeconomic events.
After initially promoting credit-specialist Ted Burdick to replace Bessent, Soros lost macro manager David Rogers and several members of that team. They parted ways with the firm after disagreeing with Burdick over the direction of global markets. Soon after, Burdick stepped down, returning to his old job, and was replaced by Fitzpatrick.
--With assistance from Nishant Kumar
To contact the reporters on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net, Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella
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