Sloane Robinson, a London-based Hedge Fund co-founded by George Robinson, is set to close by the end of this year.  This decision was based primarily on a decline in the firm’s assets under management.  The firm was also lacking in performance which was mainly due to volatile markets resulting from Covid-19.  Sloane Robinson’s Global Frontier fund dropped by more than 12 percent since only January of this year.  During this period, the firm’s Global International fund was down 7.8 percent.  Sloane Robinson’s assets under management have dropped significantly in the past decade and remain at just over $1 billion today.  According to Bloomberg, “Despite strong investment performance amidst difficult market conditions, we have not succeeded in acquiring the required assets to support this franchise and the partnership remains dependent on revenue from the legacy funds of the founding partners.”  Evidently, the firm is no longer able to sustain itself.

About the Firm

Sloane Robinson was founded in 1993 by George Robinson and Hugh Sloane.  The firm focused on international short equity stocks on Asian markets.  In its prime, Sloane Robinson was among London’s top ten hedge funds in assets under management.  The fund’s 14 partners aggregated £340.7m in profits in 2008.  Today, that number is only £4.4m.  Since the firm’s success depends heavily on emerging markets, it is too difficult to recover.  The Covid-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on emerging markets — which is likely due to a freeze in the global economy.  As economies around the world shut down, countries are more likely to invest domestically until the effects of the pandemic wane. 

The Future of Sloane Robinson

Although the Global Opportunities and Global Compounder portfolios will shut down, other investment managers with the firm are still in flux.  Portfolio managers Ed Butchart and CJ Morrell are looking for investment management opportunities. 

The Frontier and Emerging Market funds’ current investors are expected to join new investors.  Despite an uncertain future, staff at Sloane Robinson and CEO David Gale are expected to stay until the end of the year.