Viking Global Investors’ fund specializing in private investments is off to another strong start this year. Viking Global Opportunities Drawdown was up 14.7 percent gross and 11.6 percent net in the first quarter, according to someone who has seen the results. Viking Global Opportunities Hybrid was up 1.6 percent in the first quarter, the source says. The fund invests in both private and public companies, but the exact mix is not known. All capital in the hybrid fund not invested in private companies replicates the portfolio of the firm’s long-short hedge fund, Viking Global Equities.
Both funds were also strong performers in 2023: VGO Hybrid was up 22.6 percent, and VGO Drawdown surged 25.2 percent. It is not known what specific investments are most impacting performance this year, but over the years, Viking’s private investments have emphasized health care, life sciences, biopharma, and other medical-related companies. The firm, headed by Tiger Cub O. Andreas Halvorsen, declined to comment.
Viking manages more than $46 billion. Of that sum, more than $15 billion is invested in private companies, according to the firm’s website. Viking currently has more than 70 portfolio companies.
Last year, gains were driven in part by at least two health care–related companies: RayzeBio and BridgeBio. RayzeBio was acquired earlier this year by Bristol Myers Squibb.
For the past few years, shares of BridgeBio have yo-yoed, driving either gains or losses. Viking owned more than 22 percent of the shares of BridgeBio before it went public in 2019, at $17 per share, and now holds 14.29 percent, representing the hedge fund firm’s seventh-largest U.S. common stock long.
The stock more than quadrupled in 2020 before losing nearly 90 percent of its value by early 2022. All along, Viking did not sell any shares, and in 2023, the stock swelled by about five times. This year, it is down nearly 40 percent.
On the private side, Viking has made seven new investments so far this year, according to Crunchbase. Last year, it made a total of 17 new private investments.
Viking led three of the seven 2024 private investments. In February, Viking and Cormorant Asset Management, a biopharma-focused hedge fund firm, co-led a $120 million financing of Neurona Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company developing regenerative cell therapies for neurological disorders.
Viking also co-led a $125 million equity financing for Mainstay Medical Holdings, a medical device company offering a restorative neurostimulation system, ReActiv8, for people with chronic lower-back pain.
In the first quarter, Viking Global Equities gained 5.8 percent and Viking Long Fund rose 10.1 percent.
