New York (HedgeCo.net) – 2015 is in the rearview mirror now and for two of the hedge fund industry’s more prominent names, that view is a welcome sight. Bill Ackman and his fund Pershing Square and David Einhorn and his Greelight Capital both released their performance numbers on Tuesday and both showed losses of 20% or more.

For Ackman the final loss came in at 20.5% and a good portion of that loss can be attributed to one of their top holdings, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX), being down almost 29% during 2015. For Einhorn the loss was right at 20% and a good portion of the loss at Greenlight can be attributed to the 76.5% loss in Consol Energy.
This is the first annual loss for Pershing Square in the firm’s 11-year history and for Greenlight it is the first annual loss since 2008 when the fund lost 23%.

Early indications from industry research firm HFR show that the average hedge fund lost 3.49% in 2015, so the losses by Pershing Square and Greenlight were well above the average. These two funds will likely see more leeway from investors when it comes to redemptions given their long-term track records, but they will also want to bounce back in 2016.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest