Alua Capital Management is shutting down its roughly $2bn hedge fund, bringing an end to a high-profile launch backed by strong pedigree but ultimately falling short on performance, according to a report by Bloomberg.
In a letter to investors, co-founders Tom Purcell and Marco Tablada said the decision followed a period of returns that did not meet expectations, despite intermittent stretches of stronger performance.
The firm’s global equities strategy generated annualised returns of approximately 4% from its November 2020 inception through the first quarter of 2026, according to investors. The outcome highlights the increasingly challenging environment for fundamental long-short managers in recent years.
Alua launched with close to $2bn in assets, making it one of the more significant hedge fund debuts of 2020. Investor interest was driven largely by the founders’ backgrounds at two of the industry’s most prominent firms – Viking Global Investors and Lone Pine Capital.
However, the intervening period has been marked by sharp shifts in interest rates, macro volatility and rapid technological change, all of which have complicated stock-picking strategies and increased dispersion across sectors and styles.
In their letter, the founders emphasised that hedge fund investors should expect consistent alpha generation across market environments — a standard they acknowledged the firm had not met.
Alua has already reduced a significant portion of its portfolio and expects to return capital to investors by the end of the second quarter, according to the letter.
