Kenneth Griffin, Citadel Investment Group
I Love Credit Derivatives … or at Least I Did
Kenneth Griffin's bad year just got a lot worse, making it even more difficult for him to collect the big fees that made him one of the country's richest fund managers.
Griffin's Citadel Investment Group in Chicago lost about 13% in November, according to investors, bringing its investment decline to 47% for 2008. Tabulating those losses and client withdrawals, the firm's total assets are expected to fall to $12 billion at year end from a peak of nearly $20 billion in January when the firm was planning an initial public offering. That plan was put on hold.
"The market for credit derivatives has effectively created a huge new pool of risk-taking capital for our debt markets. This represents an enormous improvement in our financial system -- but one that could not have occurred without the innovation that competitive market dynamics trigger." -- January 2008.
