John Paulson has a few choice words for his hedge fund peers. The veteran hedge fund manager, who is enjoying an outstanding year amid an industry-wide downturn, says it’s a mistake for hedge funds to block investors from getting their money back.
“We think it’s a mistake for managers to use gates and other tools to limit investor access to their funds,” Paulson wrote in an investor letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg.
“While we recognize the difficulties of the current environment, we think it is a manager’s responsibility to raise liquidity to meet the redemption needs of their investors.”
According to the letter, Paulson was “especially surprised” by managers who restricted redemption requests accounting for a quarter or less of assets under management, and where “the managers have the cash and one of the stated reasons for restricting withdrawals is so the manager can continue to invest in new opportunities.”
Paulson’s largest hedge fund, the $13 billion Paulson Advantage Plus, is up some 38% through Dec. 19, according to the letter.