The holiday season is proving anything but joyful for investors in Ken Griffin’s beleaguered Citadel Investment Group.
Following a decline of nearly 50% in its flagship multistrategy vehicle, and redemption requests for about $1.2 billion, Citadel has joined the growing list of hedge funds to freeze client withdrawals.
The Chicago firm has also shut down its special situations group and has said it will cover a substantial portion of the strategy’s management fees in 2008 – assuming the expenses itself, rather than passing them on to investors in line with its usual approach.
Yesterday, Standard & Poor’s lowered both its long and short-term counterparty credit...