(Bloomberg) -- Golub Capital is shutting down a $150 million credit-hedge fund that invested in distressed debt, following the market’s worst rout since the financial crisis.
The Chicago-based asset manager is closing the GC Synexus fund after losses exceeded 20% in 2015, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Daniel Posner, who led the fund after joining from D.E. Shaw & Co. in 2011, is leaving the firm, the person said.
“Market illiquidity has created a fundamental mismatch between the liquidity that hedge-fund investors expect and the illiquidity of the underlying investment assets," Posner said in an e-mailed statement provided by the firm. "In light of this, we concluded that it was in the best interests of our investors to close the fund given the limitations on what we could provide within the fund’s structure."
The fund’s closing comes after Third Avenue Management froze redemptions from a high-yield mutual fund in December, the same month London-based Lucidus Capital Partners said it liquidated its entire portfolio.
Golub manages about $15 billion in assets with a focus on middle-market lending. It hired Posner to develop new credit strategies, it said in a Jan. 2011 statement.
Distressed bonds plunged 38% last year after a 20% drop in 2014, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. The market for the least creditworthy debt has ballooned five-fold to $362 billion from $72 billion three years ago, according to the data.
