Tiger Global nursing $17bn losses after global tech rout
Prolific tech investor Tiger Global is nursing losses of $17bn this year after a rout in global tech stocks, fresh data has revealed.
Tiger Global, founded in 2001 by Chase Coleman, has shed around two-thirds of the gains made since its inception, according to data from investment tracker LCH Investments, first reported by the Financial Times.
The plunge in value marks one of the worst declines in history for a hedge fund and marks a sharp fall to earth for the high-flying New York fund.
Until recently, Tiger Global managed around $90bn in assets and had made huge gains for investors in its 21 year run.
Coleman, one of the so-called ‘tiger cubs’ of legendary hedge fund Tiger Management, was ranked as the 14th best performing hedge fund manager of all time in early 2021 by LCH Investments, having made $10.4bn of gains, a return of 48 per cent.
But the firm’s top investments have plunged since the start of the year as investors turned on tech stocks.
Tiger Global’s top investments at the end of 2021 were Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, Microsoft and Singapore tech company Sea, and digital banking platform Nu Holdings, according to its 13-F filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All of those stocks have tumbled at least 21 per cent this year, while Sea has plunged 71 per cent in 2022.
Tiger Global’s troubles come amid a wider plunge in tech stocks amid soaring inflation and turbulent markets which have been exacerbated by war in Ukraine.
Tech titans in the US plummeted in value again in the past week after the Fed hiked interest rates last week.
Between Wednesday and the end of trading on Monday, Microsoft shed around $189bn in value, Tesla’s markdown registered at $199bn, and Amazon’s market capitalization has declined by $17bn.
‘Lockdown darling’ tech stocks have been among the worst fallers in the past four months as investors fled firms that have benefited from lockdowns.
Netflix share price climbed over 80 per cent between April 2020 and October but have plunged over 70 per cent since the end of October.
Zoom, which benefits in huge user growth through the pandemic, has similarly plunged 50 per cent since the start of the year and is now trading at levels seen before the pandemic.