Man Group PLC (LON:EMG), the struggling hedge fund, just added a new executive chairman from North America, John Rohal. He will work with Man Group PLC (LON:EMG)’s COO and head of sales in North America to expand business and recruit new investments. He will take his new position by the start of next year. Rohal is currently on the investment committee of Makena Capital Management, he will leave that position to come work at Man Group PLC (LON:EMG).
The fund also hired Sudi Mariappa in September to manage Man Group’s fixed income strategies and Douglas Greenig left Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) to work at Man Group in May of this year.
Man Group is world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund, with total assets of $60 billion, and has been going through a rough patch for some time now. Clients pulled about $2.2 billion in the last quarter, which is a 57 percent increase from the year ago quarter. The flagship fund name, AHL manages close to $16 billion. AHL Diversified with assets close to $1.6 billion is down 2.74 percent through November and performance contracted by 6.8 percent in 2011. AHL Evolution, founded in 2006, was up 18 percent YTD till the mid of November.
The decline in performance has also affected Man Group shares, which have slid as much as 40 percent this year. The slide caused Man Group’s exit from the FTSE 100 list. The under-performance has made Man Group a short bet of AQR Capital Management, the hedge fund has a short position in 1.32 percent of Man Group.
Another asset manager, BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), may not be shorting Man Group but they cut their long holding in Man Group to almost half of the previous stake, a couple of days ago. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) held 9.32 percent in Man Group in March of this year, the most recent SEC filing shows a stake of just 5 percent. On the other end, London based Odey Asset Management acquired a 5 percent stake in Man Group in October. It looks like Man Group is undergoing all kinds of activity this year.
