By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) - Hedge fund Tourbillon Capital Partners is shutting down after several years of poor returns, making it the third well-known fund to announce plans to close its doors within a week.
"We have recently not delivered the results that you expect of us and what we know we are capable of," Jason Karp, who has been running Tourbillon for six years, wrote to clients in a letter seen by Reuters.
He said he plans to spend his time focusing on private and public companies within the health and wellness industry.
At its peak, Tourbillon managed roughly $3 billion in assets and Karp was named one of the hedge fund industry's rising stars in 2012 after stints as co-chief investment officer at hedge fund Carlson Capital and as director of research and portfolio manager at SAC's CR Intrinsic Investors Group. It currently manages over $1 billion.
A spokesman declined to comment.
Last week, Boston-based hedge fund Highfields Capital, which oversees roughly $12 billion, announced to clients that it would be shutting down. Criterion Capital also said last week that it would be shutting down, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Two years ago, Karp spoke for many hedge fund managers when he said the industry, once largely united in its dislike for Donald Trump, now felt fund managers could benefit from the new administration and make more money by judging companies on their earnings.
Now he said he plans to keep investing in the stock market but in "radically different and unconstrained manner." Fueled by a deeply personal interest in the health and wellness sector rooted in his own experience with autoimmune diseases in his early 20s, Karp said he would spend most of his time on this sector. In part he plans to grow Hu Kitchen, a food products company and restaurant his family launched six years ago.