(Reuters) Blackstone Group (BX.N) is winding down its “big bet” hedge fund Senfina Advisors LLC after it faced mounting double-digit losses on its investments this year, a spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday.It is a rare setback for the private equity titan, which invests roughly $70 billion in hedge funds, and launched Senfina, which means “everlasting” in Esperanto, to great fanfare in 2014.
The fund was one of last year’s top performers, gaining 20 percent, but is down 24 percent this year through November after wrong-way bets in its so-called center book where declines were most pronounced.Other “multi-manager” hedge funds, which make leveraged concentrated bets on a range of securities, have also suffered this year after being wrong-footed by the pace of U.S. interest rate hikes and the post-election rally in the United States.
