http://www.livemint.com/Companies/f0NzIWMg4D7F9WrKEIeuZP/BlackRock-winding-down-global-macro-hedge-fund-after-redempt.html
Boston: BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager, is winding down a global macro hedge fund after losses and investor redemptions eroded assets.
BlackRock Global Ascent lost 9.4% this year, according to an October investor document, on track for its worst year since inception in 2003. The fund, which had $4.6 billion in assets just two years ago, has shrunk to less than $1 billion as of 1 November, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information is private.
“We are committed to our macro investment capabilities,” BlackRock said in its statement. “Many of our multi-asset and single-asset class strategies combine top-down (macro) techniques with bottom-up (security level) capabilities and we believe macro factors can be important contributors to successful performance.”
BlackRock oversees $4.5 trillion globally, though much of it is in low-fee exchange-traded funds. The firm this month cut fees on some ETFs to as low as 0.03% of assets. The hedge funds, while small by comparison, carry much higher fees — in the case of the macro fund, a 2% management fee and 20% of profits.
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