The fallout from the Swiss National Bank unpegging from the euro and soaring more than 25% overnight back in January continues to mount. Several firms forex trading firms and hedge funds lost substantial sums (forex brokers Alpari UK and Global Brokers NZ went belly up, and FXCM, a major online foreign exchange trading firm, had to get a $300 mil loan to get by), but Everest Capital has perhaps paid the highest price, having to eventually close six out of its seven funds.
The Miami-based hedge fund firm is returning capital to investors in six of its funds after being hammered by the lifting of the Swiss franc’s cap against the euro earlier this year. The resulting huge move up in the Swiss franc caused giant losses in one of Everest’s funds (the $830 million Global Fund) in a single day’s trading.
More on Everest fund closings
Although the other six funds had no exposure to the Swiss franc trade that sank Everest’s Global Fund, high redemption requests across the board led to the decision to close them. On average, investors will get back close to 90% of their capital back following the fund closures at the end of the month, according to Bloomberg News.
Founded by Marko Dimitrijevic back in 1990, Everest Capital is well known and considered an industry icon in some circles. The hedge fund firm specializes in emerging markets and successfully managed its EM portfolio during the 1998 crises in Mexico and Southeast Asia
As reported by Valuewalk, Dimitrijevic had already announced plans to close down the Global Fund shortly after the Swiss Franc disaster back in January, but after long thought, made the call to only keep the firm’s bread and butter $570 million emerging markets fund open. CNBC reported earlier this year that the Everest Capital Emerging Markets hedge fund was up a solid 18.6% for the year through October 2014.
