Despite solid performance in recent months by SkyBridge Capital's crypto-focused hedge fund, investors in Anthony Scaramucci's investing vehicle are rushing to cash out: investors who own about 70% of the fund’s shares have asked for their money back in the latest redemption period that ended in March, Bloomberg reported citing a regulatory filing. The fund, which returns money through a tender offer, bought back just 7% of those shares while gating the remaining redemption requests, effectively barring clients from exiting even though returns have jumped.
Scaramucci, 60, declined to comment to Bloomberg, but he previously said the fund lets him limit redemptions and that he’s “operating inside the ambit of the prospectus.”
This isn't the first time SkyBridge has gated its investors: the fund began limiting withdrawals two years ago amid the so-called crypto winter, when the fund posted large losses and investors sought to flee. In retrospect, good thing it did because bitcoin is about 3 times higher than where it was back then, preventing SkyBridge's investors from booking huge losses.
The recent burst of redemption requests is more confusing, considering the fund's recent outperformance. Bitcoin soared roughly 150% in the 12 months ended March 31, and the SkyBridge fund gained 46.4%. Yet many clients want the Mooch to stop holding their cash captive.
According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley’s private wealth clients account for about 70% of the fund’s $1.6 billion, and the bank has been trying to get them out for more than a year, according to Bloomberg sources.
Hedge funds usually only curb redemptions, also known as gating, when they’re holding hard-to-sell investments and redemptions would disadvantage remaining investors. Others curb redemptions amid poor performance as a way to hold onto capital. SkyBridge Co-CIO Brett Messing gated investors at his earlier fund, GPS Partners, after it dropped almost 15% in January 2008. Back then, fewer than a fifth of its clients asked to pull their money.
Despite recent outperformance, including a 26% jump in the first quarter, SkyBridge has barely erased previous losses. In the five years ended March 31, it posted annualized returns of less than 1%. The firm managed a total of about $2 billion as of year-end, down from a $9 billion peak in 2015.
Scaramucci is perhaps best known for being Donald Trump’s communications director for 11 days in July 2017 until he was fired after an expletive-filled interview with the New Yorker. Scaramucci also founded the SkyBridge Alternatives hedge fund conference, known as SALT.
SkyBridge was previously known for being a Fund of Funds, and investing in other hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen, Dan Loeb and Izzy Englander. While it still has some of these investments, it began pivoting to crypto beginning in 2020.
At the end of the first quarter, the fund had 57% of cryptocurrency and digital assets, 21% in multistrategy funds, 7% in equity funds and 15% in structured credit funds, according to a filing.
