Maverick Capital is an American
hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...
firm. It was founded by
Lee Ainslie
Lee S. Ainslie III is the head of hedge fund Maverick Capital. He is a value investor that is particularly known for his investments in the technology sector.
Early life and education
Ainslie's father was headmaster of Episcopal High School, a p ...
in 1993, who was a "
Tiger Cub" under
Julian Robertson
Julian Hart Robertson Jr. (June 25, 1932 – August 23, 2022) was an American billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist.
Robertson founded Tiger Management, one of the first hedge funds, in 1980. From its inception in 1980 to its 1 ...
at
Tiger Management
Tiger Management Corp., also known as "The Tiger Fund", is an American hedge fund and family office founded by Julian Robertson. The fund began investing in 1980 and closed in March 2000/01. It continues to operate today in direct public equit ...
, helped raise $38 million in capital by the family of Texas entrepreneur
Sam Wyly
Samuel Evans Wyly (born October 4, 1934) is an American businessman. He first appeared on ''Forbes''s list of richest Americans in 2000 with a net worth of $750 million, and he remained on that list throughout 2010 with a net worth of $1 billio ...
.
From 1995 to 2014, the fund returned a compounded return of 13% annually.
As of February 2019, Maverick has $14.9 billion in assets under management and 129 employees.
It primarily sticks with stocks (avoiding bonds, commodities, currencies, and options), holding both long and short positions and buying what it thinks will beat the market.
It employs fundamental analysis and examines management closely. It examines companies for "good capital-allocation decisions", and especially how incremental returns on invested capital compare to the cost of capital.
In 2006, Lee Ainslie mentioned "It’s quite frustrating as a shareholder that companies are not using cash more productively for their shareholders, whether by buying back stock or by issuing dividends". Lee Ainslie describes Maverick Capital as a traditional fund that puts greater premium on the value of its relationships with management teams than more "interventionist" hedge funds.
It started to diversify into young companies in 2004 under its flagship equities hedge fund (under David Singer).
In October 2014, Maverick announced that it would be hitting the startup scene by launching its first venture capital fund on January 1, 2015.
Many of its investments involve healthcare and biotechnology.
By the end of 2015, it carried over $6.9 billion in holdings.
References
Tiger Management
Hedge funds
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