John Henry Assets Under Management Drop 80% in Year, WSJ Says
2007-05-29 05:52 (New York)
By Alan Purkiss
May 29 (Bloomberg) -- John W. Henry & Co., a U.S.
investment firm that's performed badly for more than a year,
will lose $600 million from Merrill Lynch & Co. this week,
leaving it with $500 million under management, the Wall Street
Journal said in its ``Heard on the Street'' column.
Only a year ago, the Florida-based firm, founded and led
by the man who also owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team,
managed more than $2.5 billion, the newspaper said.
John Henry's biggest investment fund, the Strategic
Allocation Program, has dropped 24 percent in the past year
and more than 9 percent so far in 2007; six other programs
have fallen more than 20 percent, the Journal said.
Henry is a so-called trend follower, who gambles on
significant market moves continuing; however, limited
volatility and a dearth of prolonged trends have hurt him
badly, the newspaper said.
The firm has had talks about affiliating with another
investment manager, but no transaction is imminent, the
Journal said, citing a person close to the matter; Henry,
meanwhile, says he has no plans to abandon the trend-following
strategy or to close the firm, the Journal added.
(Wall Street Journal 5-29, C1)
