(Reuters) – Hedge fund Highfields Capital Management is shutting down amid a period of lackluster returns and as its founder said he needs a change after two decades of managing money for prominent clients including Harvard University. Jonathon Jacobson told investors on Wednesday that he plans to convert the roughly $12 billion Boston-based firm into a family office and acknowledged that results in the “last few years” have fallen short of his expectations.<\/p>\n
Highfields has lost a little more than 1 percent this year and was up just slightly in 2017. Longer term, the firm returned an average 10.2 percent a year after fees since opening for business in 1998, compared with a 7.4 percent Standard & Poor’s 500 gain. The firm will be returning roughly $10 billion to clients and Jacobson said he will liquidate the portfolio “methodically and opportunistically” instead of trying to meet any arbitrary, near-term deadline with a fire-sale.<\/p>\n