Traxis to Liquidate Biggs’s Hedge Fund Into Another Pool

Traxis Partners LP, the $1.2 billion hedge fund started by Barton Biggs, told clients it will liquidate a vehicle he managed and transfer the assets to another pool following his death over the weekend.

The Traxis Global Equity Macro Fund will be cashed out and the assets will be invested on Aug. 1 in the Traxis Fund, managed by partners Amer Bisat, Andy Skov and Krishen Sud, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm told clients today in a letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. Investors will have the option of withdrawing their money at the end of this month.

“We don’t have indications of deep demand for redemptions at all,” Bisat, who is the firm’s managing partner, said in a telephone interview. “We’re doing this as a sign of confidence since we recognize this is an important event for investors and the firm.”

Biggs, a former global investment strategist at Morgan Stanley (MS), died on July 14 at age 79. The cause of death was complications from a bacterial infection, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

Traxis Fund

The Traxis Fund focuses on a global macro strategy, with investments in fixed income, currencies, emerging-market stocks and equities with a health-care focus, Bisat said.

Biggs’s stock fund, one of five hedge funds managed by the firm, has about $300 million in assets and lost about 1.5 percent this year through June, the person said. Hedge funds returned 0.9 percent in the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Investors were previously able to pull their money on a quarterly basis after giving a month’s notice, the person said.

Bisat, 48, joined Traxis in 2007 after working at Rubicon Fund Management LLP, a London-based hedge fund, where he oversaw emerging-markets investments. He had previously worked at Morgan Stanley and UBS AG.

Skov, 46, another Morgan Stanley alumnus, joined Traxis four years ago and earlier founded Point Reyes Capital LLC, which invested in startup companies.

Sud, 51, a co-founder of the defunct hedge fund Galleon Group LLC, joined Traxis last year when it merged with his hedge fund, Sivik Global Healthcare Partners.

Biggs started Traxis after retiring from Morgan Stanley in 2003 after three decades at the bank, which owns a minority stake in his fund. He began the hedge fund with two other Morgan Stanley alumni, Cyril Moulle-Berteaux and Madhav Dhar, who have since left.

To contact the reporters on this story: Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net; Nikolaj Gammeltoft in New York at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net

Barton Biggs in his office in New York. Photographer: G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times via Redux

5:06

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Group LP's advisory services unit, remembers Barton Biggs, the strategist who spent 30 years at Morgan Stanley and later founded Traxis Partners. Biggs died on July 14, Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said today in a memo to employees obtained by Bloomberg News. He was 79. Wien speaks with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt on Bloomberg Radio's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)