Chase Coleman's Tiger Global 13F Filing Q4 2008 ~ market folly

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Chase Coleman's Tiger Global 13F Filing Q4 2008

This is the 4th Quarter 2008 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings preface.

Next up is Chase Coleman's Tiger Global. Chase Coleman is yet another 'Tiger Cub,' or manager who learned their trade under the watch of Julian Robertson while at Tiger Management. We've already covered many of the 'Tiger Cub' funds' portfolios including Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Chris Shumway's Shumway Capital Partners, and John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital. And, late last year, many of these managers gathered at a 'Tiger Cub' hedge fund manager panel, where they laid out investment theses for the future.

Chase Coleman attended Williams College and started Tiger Global with the blessing of Julian Robertson after learning the ways of success at Tiger Management. His focus has always been on smaller cap names and on technology. Although, he has since expanded his horizons with time. In 2007, Tiger Global returned 70%, and from 2001-2007, Coleman bolstered an average return of 47%. In terms of activity, we just recently posted about Tiger's amended 13D filing on Longtop Financial Technologies (LFT).

The following were their long equity, note, and options holdings as of December 31st, 2008 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Microsoft (MSFT)
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)
Walmart (WMT)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Discovery Communications (DISCK) C-shares
Google (GOOG)
Philip Morris (PM)
JA Solar (JASO)
Altria (MO)
Broadridge Financial (BR)
Diamonds (DIA)
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Discovery Communications (DISCA) A-shares
ishares Russell 2000 (IWM)
Yingli Green Energy (YGE)
ishares Russell 2000 Value (IWN)
ETrade (ETFC)
Hill Rom (HRC)
Ultrashort Real estate (SRS)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
LDK Solar (LDK): Increased by 260%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
CSX (CSX): Reduced by 90%
Apple (AAPL): Reduced by 71%
Transdigm (TDG): Reduced by 39%
Lorillard (LO): Reduced by 25.9%
Mastercard (MA): Reduced by 20.2%
Visa (V): Reduced by 17.7%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Washington Mutual (WAMUQ)
Vocus (VOCS)
Hovnanian (HOV)
China Security (CSR)
Fifth Street (FSC)
Thor (THO)
A-Power (APWR)
Ambac (ABK)
iStar Financial (SFI)
Emcore (EMKR)
Under Armour (UA)
Colonial Bancgroup (CNB)
Comerica (CMA)
Discovery Holding (DSY)
Regions Financial (RF)
Cavium Networks (CAVM)
Meredith (MDP)
True Religion (TRLG)
Service Corp (SCI)
Data Domain (DDUP)
First Horizon (FHN)
Marshal & Ilsley (MI)
Huntington Bancshares (HBAN)
General Motors (GM)
Zions Bancorp (ZION)
Sina Corp (SINA)
Coach (COH)
SBA Communications (SBAC)
America Movil (AMX)
American Tower (AMT)


Top 15 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

  1. Microsoft (MSFT): 12.89% of portfolio
  2. SPDR S&P500 (SPY): 12.74% of portfolio
  3. Mastercard (MA): 10% of portfolio
  4. Lorillard (LO): 7.8% of portfolio
  5. Visa (V): 7.44% of portfolio
  6. Longtop Financial Technologies (LFT): 6.9% of portfolio
  7. Qualcomm (QCOM): 6.56% of portfolio
  8. Walmart (WMT): 5.76% of portfolio
  9. Transdigm (TDG): 3.71% of portfolio
  10. Mercadolibre (MELI): 3.2% of portfolio
  11. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): 2.67% of portfolio
  12. Discovery Communications (DISCK): 2.38% of portfolio
  13. Google (GOOG): 1.64% of portfolio
  14. LDK Solar (LDK): 1.5% of portfolio
  15. Philip Morris International (PM): 1.48% of portfolio


Some of their biggest moves included sales of American Tower (AMT) and CSX (CSX). AMT was previously almost a 12% position for them, and no they no longer own it. While they still hold CSX, it was previously nearly a 12% position for them and now its only a 1% holding. The sale of AMT is even more-so interesting considering the fact that many other 'Tiger Cub' hedge funds owned/own AMT in size. We'll have to see what everyone else does with their position. In terms of additions, they added Microsoft (MSFT) as a new holding this past quarter and brought it all the way up to the top holding in the portfolio. Additionally, their large addition of SPY (S&P500 ETF) will have served them well, assumming they were still holding when the market started rallying significantly. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $3.37 billion last quarter and were down to $2.2 billion this quarter. We cover a new hedge fund each day and you can see the complete list of hedge fund portfolios here.

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