York Capital Management, chaired by James Dinan, manages more than $15 billion in assets. Its flagship fund was up 3 percent in August. York mostly invests in diversified strategy, which is based on a number of funds, including the York Total Return fund that manages $1.5 billion. This arm of York was up 6.96 percent year to date (till August), while the returns since inception are +5.47 percent. The fund was established in 2006 and mostly invests in hedge fund opportunities.
The top five longs in the Total Return fund are: Lehman Brothers (PINK: LEHMQ), Energy Future Holdings (formerly called TXU), Kaupthing Bank, Redbank Energy/Alinta Energy (ASX: AEJ), and Orion Cable. The undisclosed shorts are in Financials, Industrials, and Materials. The long portfolio is made of more than 100 positions, while there are 29 short positions.
By regions, the fund is focused on longs in North America, which make up over 40 percent of the portfolio, and 7 percent shorts. The long and short exposure in western Europe is closely spaced, with 32.0 and 25 percent of the portfolio concentrated in each respectively. More than 17 percent of the fund is exposed in Asia on gross basis (Long: 10 percent, Short: -7 percent).
By sectors, the largest investment is in Financials (Long: 41 percent, Short: -12 percent), followed by Consumer Discretionary (long: 13 percent), and Industrials (Long: 13 percent). By asset type, the two major players in York Capital’s Total Return fund are Public equity market (Long: 39 percent, Short: -17 percent) and Bonds (Long: 36 percent, Short: -8 percent). The private equity longs take up 4.3 percent of the portfolio, a couple of the top five long positions, mentioned above, are also privately owned companies.
The highest gains in York Capital’s Total Return were seen three years after inception in 2009, with +40.5 percent, the maximum decline was -30 percent in 2008. The Total Return fund is recovering from a slump of -7.22 percent in 2011, and is looking good so far.
