With its flagship fund down more than 2 percent for the year, the hedge fund Tudor Investment is undergoing a major series of layoffs, according to three people familiar with the matter, in a headcount reduction that according to one of these people could ultimately amount to more than 20 percent of the staff.
Starting Friday, Tudor, which according to a March Securities and Exchange Commission filing employed 409 workers, began notifying certain staffers that they were being laid off, one source said. One of the unlucky few, this person added: a longtime execution trader who placed buy and sell orders personally for founder Paul Tudor Jones II.
Tudor said in a statement that "a changing operating environment" resulted in "strategic adjustments to our firm's staffing."
"These difficult changes were made after conducting a deep and broad review of our business and are meant to optimally size the firm for future success. We are committed to treating our departing employees with care and support and appreciate their many contributions to Tudor," the company said.
A Tudor spokesman denied the layoffs would reach 20 percent of the staff.
While the layoffs that began Aug. 12 had affected about 60 people already, the total could eventually climb closer to 100, one person familiar with the matter said. Portfolio managers with performance issues were some of those who had been cut, another person familiar with the matter said.
Tudor's flagship BVI Global Fund, which according to an HSBC hedge-fund report manages about $7 billion, was down 2.45 percent through Aug. 5, HSBC indicated, while the average hedge fund is up close to 3 percent so far this year, according to figures tracked by HFR.
And this year's disappointing returns, which have already prompted trims to certain investor fees and redemptions, followed two years in which Tudor's flagship-fund returns, while positive, were in the low single digits: 1.4 percent last year, and 3.5 percent in 2014.