Many high-profile Tiger Cubs and related felines are quietly enjoying a strong year. Several are outperforming the broad market, and some have rallied from devastating losses in the bear market to approach or even surpass their high-water marks.
Glenn Kacher’s Light Street Capital continues to set the Tiger pace despite posting only small gains in September. Its long-short fund is up 45 percent for the year after tacking on 50 basis points last month, and its long-only fund rose 34.7 percent after gaining 2 percent in September, according to a person who has seen the results. Even so, the funds remain well below their high-water marks.
As Institutional Investor has been reporting, tech-driven Light Street has been bullish on artificial intelligence and on semiconductor companies deemed to be big AI plays. At the end of the second quarter, the firm’s two largest positions — Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — accounted for roughly 30 percent of the U.S. common stock long portfolio.
Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners appears to be the second-best Tiger performer this year. As II reported previously, its public portfolio was up more than 34 percent through September after jumping 19 percent in 2023. D1 is now within a few percentage points of its high-water mark.
This year, it has been driven by Instacart parent Maplebear and Philip Morris, which at the end of June were the firm’s two largest U.S. common stock long positions, accounting for about 25 percent of those assets.
II has also reported that Stephen Mandel Jr.’s Lone Pine Capital long-short fund, Lone Cypress, was up 23 percent through September. Lone Cascade, the long-only fund, was up 25 percent.
Elsewhere, relatively unknown Untitled Investments is up 21 percent for 2024 after gaining 1.7 percent in September. Untitled is headed by Neeraj Chandra, formerly a partner at Tiger Global Management.
Kaspi.kz, a Kazakhstan-based app that listed shares in the U.S. in January, accounted for more than 19 percent of Untitled’s U.S.-listed common stock longs as of the end of June, according to a regulatory filing. Untitled is outperforming Chandra’s former firm, whose long-short fund is up 16.2 percent for the year after climbing 1.8 percent in September. It is significantly below its high-water mark. At the end of June, Facebook parents Meta Platforms and Microsoft were the two largest U.S.-listed longs, accounting for 28 percent of assets.
Meanwhile, Coatue Management’s long-short fund was a top performer in September, rising 4 percent. Even so, it is up only 12 percent for the year.
Viking Global Investors’ long-short fund brings up the rear, having gained just 9.3 percent for the year through September. Given that the fund surpassed its high-water mark over a year ago, investors are likely not complaining.