Omni Partners To Close Macro Hedge Fund

Omni Partners is shuttering a global macro hedge fund following the decision of CIO Stephen Rosen to step back from trading and fund management, the latest macro fund to fall victim to the crosscurrents in global financial markets since the middle of last year.

The Omni Macro Fund is reportedly down approximately 7% through the end of April, according to Bloomberg citing a person familiar with the matter. Launched in 2007, the fund managed around $237 million. Despite the difficult start to 2017, it has booked an 11.3% annualized return since inception and gained an estimated 8.4% in 2015, Bloomberg reported. 

The fund will be closed and capital returned to investors, according to an emailed statement by Omni Partners CEO Peter Coates. Macro funds, which typically invest according to broad macroeconomic trends in equities, rates and currencies, have been under particular pressure for the past several months, as global markets underwent significant, and fairly correlated, volatility. Multibillion-dollar macro funds from Fortress Investment Group, BlackRock, and Bain Capital are among those that have closed or notified investors they are winding down since last fall.

The fate of the UCITS-compliant version of the macro fund, announced at the end of March and housed on IAM Investments’ Dublin-domiciled ICAV platform, was not immediately clear.

Founded in 2004 by former Nomura prop trading co-head Steve Clark, London-based Omni Partners managed approximately $972 million in macro, equity event-driven, and secured lending strategies prior to the decision to close the macro fund. In February, the firm closed on its second secured-lending fund with commitments of $240 million.