Citadel sees lackluster results, management change
Post# of 72440
By Lynne Marek December 20, 2016
(CDEL market maker)
Citadel delivered slightly above average performance this year at its hedge fund operation as it continued to build a trading business and remake management.
The company's main hedge funds, Kensington and Wellington, which mirror each other for U.S. and offshore clients, delivered returns of about 3.14 percent through the end of November, according to a source familiar with their performance.
That's above the 1 percent average for funds tracked by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research but significantly below the 9.79 percent total return for the Standard & Poor 500 Index.
Management of the company, led by billionaire founder, CEO and owner Ken Griffin, has been changing over the past couple years with the exit of some longtime top managers and the arrival of new executives. It has also increasingly focused on building its Citadel Securities market-making arm, which buys and sells stocks and other financial instruments for the company's house account. That business is separate from $26 billion Citadel manages for clients at the hedge fund business.
Adam Cooper, the company's chief legal officer, is the latest to take his leave from the company, with Citadel announcing today that he would retire at the end of February. Cooper, 54, has been at the company 18 years, joining not long after the Chicago business named itself Citadel in 1994 following its founding in 1990.
Cooper is one of four top leaders listed on the company's website for the hedge fund operation. Shawn Fagan was promoted to general counsel for the hedge fund business, effective immediately, the company said.
Last year, the hedge fund's veteran investor relations executive, Scott Rafferty, also left the company after working there 18 years.
The company is also getting new blood with the appointment of Kevin Turner, Microsoft's former chief operating officer, as CEO of the Citadel Securities business.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/201612...gobusiness