Citadel climbs to top as big winner at 2012 Absolute Return Awards

February 13, 2013 Rob Copeland

D. E. Shaw, Pine River, SPM, Third Point among other honorees.


	Rajiv Sobti, founder of Karya Capital, accepts his award for New Fund of the Year. Homepage image: Katie Spring of Citadel. (Photos: Axel Depeux)

Ken Griffin's Citadel emerged as the runaway winner at the 2012 Absolute Return Awards last night picking up three trophies including the coveted Fund of the Year prize.

The Chicago multistrategy firm, which last won an Absolute Return accolade in 2007, erased any lingering memories of its financial crisis struggles by beating out D. E. Shaw, Metacapital, Third Point, Tiger Global and Tilden Park for the evening's top honor.

Pine River Capital Management waltzed into its fourth Absolute Return Award in style, accepting Management Firm of the Year for the first time.

Returns for funds in the Fixed Income and Mortgage-backed category were so close that the final accounting of nominees resulted in a rare tie win, with Metacapital Management and Tilden Park Capital Management both receiving trophies.

And in one of the evening's biggest surprises, newcomer Karya Capital Management beat out recent offerings from big name firms Canyon Capital Advisors, GoldenTree Asset Management and Lombard Odier Asset Management for New Fund of the Year.

This year's gala ceremony and dinner was held at New York City's Gotham Hall, where the 300+ attendees mingled and witnessed the presentation of 18 awards recognizing the best in risk-adjusted performance. See the judging methodology here.

The evening was sponsored by BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse, Newedge, J.P. Morgan and SEI.

A complete list of nominees and winners (bolded) follows. Returns are for calendar year 2012:

Nominated Fund	Management company
ARBITRAGE & CONVERTIBLES
Alphabet Partners	Saiers Capital
Capstone Volatility	Capstone Investment Advisors
Parallax	Parallax Volatility Advisers
Paulson International	Paulson & Co
Waterstone Market Neutral (+11.20%; Sharpe 2.72)	Waterstone Capital Management
Wolverine Flagship	Wolverine Asset Management

CREDIT & HIGH YIELD
400 Capital Credit Opportunities (+34.10%; Sharpe 7.15)	400 Capital Management
BlueMountain Credit Alternatives	BlueMountain Capital Management
Brevan Howard Credit Catalysts	Brevan Howard Asset Management
Candlewood Structured Credit	Candlewood Group
King Street Capital	King Street Capital Management
Marathon Securitized Credit	Marathon Asset Management
MKP Credit	MKP Capital Management
Waterfall Eden	Waterfall Asset Management

DISTRESSED
Candlewood Special Situations	Candlewood Group
Contrarian Capital	Contrarian Capital Management
Hildene Opportunities (+45.45%; Sharpe 4.00)	Hildene Capital Management
Knighthead	Knighthead Capital Management
Marathon Special Opportunity	Marathon Asset Management
Palomino	Appaloosa Management
York Credit Opportunities	York Capital Management

EVENT DRIVEN
ECF Value	Gates Capital Management
JANA Offshore	JANA Partners
Litespeed Partners	Litespeed Management
Pentwater Event	Pentwater Capital Management
Third Point Ultra (+33.67%; Sharpe 3.04)	Third Point
Venor Capital Offshore	Venor Capital Management

FIXED INCOME & MORTGAGE BACKED (TIE)
Axonic Credit Opportunities	Axonic Capital
LibreMax Partners	LibreMax Capital
Metacapital Mortgage Opportunities (+41.27%; Sharpe 7.46)	Metacapital Management
Pine River Fixed Income	Pine River Capital Management
Rimrock High Income Plus	Rimrock Capital Management
Seer Capital Partners	Seer Capital Management
SPM Structured Servicing Holdings	Structured Portfolio Management
Tilden Park (+41.34%; Sharpe 6.89)	Tilden Park Capital Management

GLOBAL EQUITY
1798 Fundamental Strategies	Lombard Odier Asset Management (USA) Corp
Citadel Global Equities (+16.86%; Sharpe 7.42)	Citadel
Pacific & General Investments	Dalton Investments
Tiger Global	Tiger Global Management
Wells Street Partners	Brookfield Investment Management

GLOBAL MACRO
Alphadyne International Master	Alphadyne Asset Management
Bridgewater All Weather	Bridgewater Associates
D. E. Shaw Heliant	D. E Shaw
D. E. Shaw Oculus (+21.11%; Sharpe 4.28)	D. E Shaw
MKP Opportunity	MKP Capital Management
PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy	Pacific Investment Management Company

MANAGED FUTURES
Black River Commodity Trading	Black River Asset Management
Campbell Global Assets	Campbell & Company
Crabel (+15.15%; Sharpe 2.36)	Crabel Capital Management
Eclipse Global Monetary Program	Eclipse Capital Management
Quantitative Global Program	Quantitative Investment Management

MULTISTRATEGY
Beach Point Total Return	Beach Point Capital Management
Canyon Value Realization	Canyon Capital Advisors
Citadel Wellington	Citadel
Hudson Bay	Hudson Bay Capital Management
Pine River Master (+21.70%; Sharpe 5.90)	Pine River Capital Management
SPM Core	Structured Portfolio Management

SPECIALIST
Caduceus Capital	OrbiMed Advisors
Citadel Tactical Trading	Citadel
Coatue Offshore	Coatue Management
Dorsal Capital Partners	Dorsal Capital Management
JANA Nirvana (+33.31%; Sharpe 3.09)	JANA Partners
Perceptive Life Sciences	Perceptive Advisors
Renaissance Institutional Equities	Renaissance Technologies
Visium Balanced	Visium Asset Management

U.S. EQUITY
Corsair Capital Partners	Corsair Capital Advisors
Force Capital II	Force Capital Management
Lakewood Capital Partners	Lakewood Capital Management
Marcato International (+28.80%; Sharpe 2.64)	Marcato Capital Management
Stelliam	Stelliam Investment Management

NEW FUND OF THE YEAR
1798 Consumer Equity Long Short	Lombard Odier Asset Management (USA) Corp
Cambrian Global	Atlantic Investment Management
Canyon Structured Assets	Canyon Capital Advisors
GoldenTree CLO Debt Investment	GoldenTree Asset Management
Hildene Opportunities II	Hildene Capital Management
Karya (+34.78%; Sharpe 4.13)	Karya Capital Management
PCM Provident MBS	Provident Advisors
Pine River Liquid Rates	Pine River Capital Management

EMERGING MANAGER & SMALLER ($100m - $500m)
Bowery Opportunity	Bowery Investment Management
HG Vora Special Opportunities (+39.09%; Sharpe 4.44)	HG Vora Capital Management
Kerrisdale Partners	Kerrisdale Advisers
LJM	LJM Partners
Midway Market Neutral	The Midway Group
Mudrick Distressed Opportunity	Mudrick Capital Management

LONG TERM PERFORMANCE (5 years)
BlueMountain Credit Alternatives	BlueMountain Capital Management
Citadel Tactical Trading (+32.37%; Sharpe 4.67)	Citadel
Halcyon Offshore Asset Backed Value	Halcyon Asset Backed Advisors
Hudson Bay	Hudson Bay Capital Management
Millennium International	Millennium International Management
Providence MBS	Providence Investment Management
SPM Structured Servicing Holdings	Structured Portfolio Management

LONG TERM PERFORMANCE (10 years)
King Street Capital	King Street Capital Management
Millennium International	Millennium International Management
MKP Credit	MKP Capital Management
Sandler Associates	Sandler Capital Management
SPM Structured Servicing Holdings (+24.53%; Sharpe 1.53)	Structured Portfolio Management
York Credit Opportunities	York Capital Management

MANAGEMENT FIRM OF THE YEAR
Citadel
D. E Shaw
JANA Partners
MKP Capital Management
Pine River Capital Management

FUND OF THE YEAR
Citadel Wellington	Citadel
D.E. Shaw Heliant	D.E. Shaw
Metacapital Mortgage Opportunities	Metacapital Management
Third Point Ultra	Third Point
Tiger Global	Tiger Global Management
Tilden Park	Tilden Park Capital Management

Data

April 2013 Absolute Return fund

Composite

Composite

Absolute Return	Apr 13	YTD	%
Composite	0.54%	2.94%	74%
Commodities	-1.78%	-5.50%	83%
Convertible & Equity Arbitrage	0.56%	1.52%	59%
Credit	1.11%	3.73%	76%
Distressed	1.00%	5.54%	64%
Event Driven	0.96%	4.96%	80%
Fixed Income	1.50%	3.92%	65%
Global Equity	0.82%	3.37%	79%
Latin American Debt	0.20%	0.99%	71%
Latin American Equity	-0.10%	4.01%	57%
Macro	0.55%	2.19%	67%
Managed Futures	1.04%	1.38%	87%
Mixed Arbitrage	0.25%	2.35%	77%
Mortgage Backed Securities	1.50%	4.04%	100%
Multi-Strategy	0.94%	3.79%	60%
Technology	0.46%	1.87%	100%
U.S. Equity	-0.30%	3.06%	72%

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