Clarium Capital

Clarium Capital
Company typePrivate
IndustryInvestment management
Founded2002; 23 years ago (2002)[1]
FounderPeter Thiel
Defunct2013 (2013)
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States[2]
AUMUS$350 million
Websiteclarium.com
Footnotes / references
[3][4]

Clarium Capital Management LLC was an American investment management and hedge fund company pursuing a global macro strategy. It was founded in San Francisco[5] in 2002 by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook.[6][1] Its assets under management grew to $8 billion in 2008, after which a series of unprofitable investments and client redemptions shrank that to about $350 million as of 2011.[7]

Function and history

Clarium was an employee-owned firm that invests in public equity (primarily in micro-cap companies), fixed income, and hedging markets. Unlike most funds, which charge clients about a 2% management fee for their total assets invested and an additional 20% performance fee of the increase in the fund's net asset value, Clarium charged a 0% management fee and a performance fee of 25%.[6]

The company stopped working while Thiel worked at PayPal and resumed in 2002.[3] In 2008, Clarium moved its headquarters from San Francisco to New York City.[8] In June 2010 Thiel closed the New York office to consolidate the company into one location at its San Francisco office.[1] By 2011, the company had shrunk by 90%.[9] It was considered defunct by 2013.[10]

Performance

2002

Clarium's 2002 performance, a series of correct bets in the energy markets that global demand would cause an oil shortage, was described by a 2009 Wall Street Journal article as "impressive".[11]

2008-2010

Clarium was down 4.5% in 2008,[12] down 25% in 2009,[13] and down 23% in 2010.[4] For the first half of 2008, the fund had a YTD return of 57.9%.[14] At the start of 2008, the fund had $4 billion in assets under management (AUM),[6] raised to $7.8 billion in June 2008, then dropped to $1.5 billion in July 2009, after investors withdrew money from the fund.[15] It lost most of its value in 2008 on large bets that the US dollar would fall, and AUM reached $681 million in December 2010.[4][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Kishan, Saijel (Jan 12, 2011). "Clarium Hedge Fund Shrinks 90 percent as Thiel Has Third Losing Year". Bloomberg. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Clarium Capital Management LLC - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg News.
  3. ^ a b "Clarium Capital Management LLC". BusinessWeek. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c "Peter Thiel's Clarium Hedge Fund Falls 23% This Year"
  5. ^ Clarium Capital on Google Maps
  6. ^ a b c "Thiel's Hedge Fund Plummet". New York Post. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  7. ^ Burton, Katherine (September 24, 2010). "Clarium's Thiel Says Dollar Is Undervalued as Deflationary Period Looms". Bloomberg. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  8. ^ Tate, Ryan. "Facebook Backer Peter Thiel Escapes New York". Gawker. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  9. ^ "Clarium Hedge Fund Shrinks 90% as Thiel Has Third Losing Year". Bloomberg.com. 2011-01-12. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
  10. ^ "Morning Brief: Jana Partners Has Best Year Since 2013". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
  11. ^ Zuckerman, Gregory (September 28, 2009). "Pessimism Exacts a Price on the Skeptics". WSJ. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  12. ^ "Hedge Fund Portfolio Tracking: Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, Q4 2008"
  13. ^ "Thiel's Clarium Capital reportedly hurting"
  14. ^ "Clarium hedge fund posts gains of 57.9 percent". Reuters. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
  15. ^ "The Quick Gutting of Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital" Archived July 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Gawker. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  16. ^ Laing, Jon (May 21, 2011). "The Happy Warrior". Barron's. Retrieved 4 August 2011.

Further reading