Overgrown and full of deadwood
Julian Robertson's clients must surely wish that Businessweek would write about the fabled investor more often. Two years ago, the magazine ran a story "Fall of the wizard", suggesting that Robertson's ego and temper were conspiring to undermine both morale and performance at Tiger Management.
Robertson sued Businessweek for libel and later won a hefty judgement. More importantly, he seemed to draw inspiration from the slings and arrows, because whatever magic he may have lost in the mid-1990s has certainly come back with a vengeance. Riding the bull market in US equities and the strong US dollar, Tiger's performance has recently been nothing short of spectacular.
Waltzing through last October's meltdown, Tiger finished 1997 up over 60%. Since then, it has tacked on another 20% gain. The eye-popping results have given Robertson even more capital to play with. Tiger now has $20 billion in assets, nearly double what it had under management just 18 months ago and roughly the same amount that George Soros has at his disposal.
But unlike Soros, Robertson keeps taking new money; the Ocelot Fund, which he launched last year (and which includes an astonishing five-year lock-up), continues to accept investors.