Amaranth Advisors sold more than half its remaining capital and returned the proceeds to investors, the firm said in a Jan. 9 letter obtained by Pensions & Investments. Founder and CEO Nick Maounis said in the letter that the fund's assets totaled nearly $2.3 billion at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2006, and that roughly "55% to 60%" of that has been returned to investors.
The remaining assets include $85 million in restricted positions that could not be sold due to lack of trading liquidity or other requirements and a $45 million real estate joint venture investment. "These investments remain to be liquidated, and we believe that if we were to attempt to sell these positions now, the market would not appropriately recognize their full value," the letter said. The fund will "retain the services of certain Amaranth portfolio managers to ensure continuity" in monitoring and eventually liquidating the investments.
The multistrategy hedge fund, which had roughly $9 billion earlier last year, lost more than half those assets on energy investment losses in September, and the following month said it would liquidate and close.
