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British billionaire Sir Christopher Hohn’s activist hedge fund TCI rose 32.7 per cent last year, well ahead of equity markets, helped by bets on stocks such as Alphabet and Moody’s, according to people who have seen the numbers.
The gains by The Children’s Investment fund, which manages just over $49bn in assets, mean it has more than recovered losses suffered in 2022, when it fell 18 per cent as global stock markets tumbled.
The fund’s performance in 2023 compares with a 24.2 per cent rise in the S&P 500 index and the FTSE 100’s 3.8 per cent gain. Equity hedge funds gained 6.6 per cent on average last year to the end of November, according to data group HFR.
TCI’s largest holdings include Alphabet, Canadian National Railway, Visa, General Electric and rating agency Moody’s as at the end of September, according to a regulatory filing.
Alphabet’s shares surged 58 per cent last year, driven in part by investor enthusiasm over the potential for large US technology firms to implement artificial intelligence in their services.
Moody’s was up 40 per cent, while Visa rose 25 per cent.
TCI held a $4bn position in Microsoft as of June last year, but sold it by the end of the third quarter, according to filings.
TCI invests in a concentrated portfolio of stocks that it tends to hold for long periods. Hohn has a reputation for shareholder activism, pushing for change when he disagrees with the direction taken by company directors.
In February last year Hohn pushed for Airbus to drop its efforts to acquire a stake in the cyber security arm of French IT company Atos.
He also called for three board members to resign at Spanish telecoms company Cellnex and was partly successful, with two of the three departing. The stock was up 15 per cent in 2023.
Canadian National’s ex-chief executive Jacques Ruest stepped down in 2021 after a campaign by Hohn.
