Paulson & Co may well have made more than $1bn from its long position in Citigroup, but the firm’s really big bet — the one that has seen the firm’s assets swell by around $8.4bn over the past 12 months (before, ahem, fees) — has been gold.
Not that that many external investors have been beneficiaries, of course. A third of Paulson & Co’s $36bn in assets under management may well be denominated in the gold share classes, but a lot of that is Mr Paulson’s — and some of his employees’ – own wealth (employees of the firm now account for 42 per cent of capital). According to the firm’s investor letter: “Approximately 178 of our investors, representing about 31 % of our investors and 38% of our AUM, have elected to be in our Gold Share classes.”
Call it what you will — FX, politics or inflation hedge — it’s pretty much doubled returns in the underlying Paulson funds:
Related links:
Paulson & Co hit by US economy fears – FT
www.ft.com/hedgefunds
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