Ex-Point72 Duo Shutters Hedge Fund as One Joins Balyasny

Chris LaSusa and Kevin Cottrell have shuttered their stocks-focused hedge fund after nearly six years, with the latter moving to multi-strategy investment firm Balyasny Asset Management.

(Bloomberg) — Chris LaSusa and Kevin Cottrell have shuttered their stocks-focused hedge fund after nearly six years, with the latter moving to multi-strategy investment firm Balyasny Asset Management.

The duo, who previously worked together at Point72 for over a decade, wound down New York-based KCL Capital in August amid a difficult fund-raising environment, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Cottrell will start trading as a portfolio manager for technology, media and telecoms stocks at Balyasny’s equities trading unit Corbets next month, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t yet public.

Investors are largely shunning single strategy hedge funds and allocating more capital to bigger, multi-manager hedge funds in the hope of steady returns from diversified sources. That’s leading to a wave of money managers giving up on their own hedge funds or abandoning plans to start new ones and instead joining platforms that pay top dollar to hire and retain them.

Those managers include macro specialist Ben Melkman, who took his strategy to Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, as well as Ahmet Arinc, who shuttered his fund after four years to join ExodusPoint Capital Management with his team. Stock picker Heron Bay Capital also closed last year, and its investment team led by founder Sean Gambino joined multi-strategy hedge fund Eisler Capital.

This unprecedented migration of talent has contributed to more than 2,500 hedge funds shutting over the last five years, exceeding launches during the period, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc.

LaSusa and Cottrell were managing $750 million at the peak of KCL Capital, which they started in late 2017. The fund was up 5.9% through July this year, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg.

LaSusa and a representative for Balyasny declined to comment.

(Updates to include name of trading unit at Balyasny in third paragraph.)

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