Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund firm, has had to be “rewired” as part of a push to improve investment performance, according to a report by the Financial Times quoting new Chief Executive Officer Nir Bar Dea.
Bar Dea, who was appointed sole CEO of the $160bn firm just over a year ago in March 2023, having previously shared the role with Mark Bertolini, says Bridgwater has finally completed its decade-long transition away from Founder Ray Dalio.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Bar Dea said: “Everything has to get rewired.
“It’s like taking a brain and a heart out of a human and then planting a new brain and a new heart.”
Connecticut-based Bridgewater, which will be 50 years old next year, dominated the sector for decades as both the largest, and best-performing hedge fund of all time, but lost the latter of those crowns to Ken Griffin’s Citadel in 2022.
Bridgewater’s flagship Pure Alpha fund sustained big losses at the end of 2022, then recorded one of its worst-ever years in 2023, after heavy losses in the final quarter left it down 7.6% after fees.
However, under Bar Dea’s leadership, the strategy has staged a rebound this year and is up about 20%, according to people familiar with the matter. As part of a plan to make the fund more nimble during big market swings, Bar Dea has also pledged to shrink the flagship fund by capping assets and returning money to investors, above that will see assets drop from $80bn to between $50bn and $60bn.
Bar Dea added: “We want to be the best, not the biggest.”
