Dan Yu, founder of research firm Gotham City Research, and Cyrus De Weck, who set up Portsea Asset Management, are teaming up to launch a new short-selling fund, General Industrial Partners, early next year, according to a report by The Financial Times.
The report cites a unnamed source as revealing that the pair are betting that a downturn in markets will help them replicate previous successful short bets against companies including Wirecard and Steinhoff.
Gotham City’s list of past short-selling successes include high-profile wagers against Spanish WiFi provider Let’s Gowex, which later filed for bankruptcy and admitted its accounts had been falsified, and insurance claims processor Quindell.
Portsea meanwhile, made a winning bet against NMC Health, a former FTSE 100 group that went into administration in 2020 after the revelation of a multibillion-dollar fraud.
The new fund, which is set to launch early next year, will reportedly hold a portfolio of 15 to 20 short positions, hedged by holding baskets or indices of stocks. Yu and De Weck may also use a separate vehicle to take a very concentrated position should they identify a particularly compelling target.
