Bracebridge Capital
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hedge fund, Financial services |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder | Nancy Zimmerman, Gabriel Sunshine |
| Headquarters | Boston , United States |
Key people | Nancy Zimmerman (Co-founder), Gabriel Sunshine (Co-founder), John Spinney (Chief Operating Officer) |
| Products | Investment management, Hedge fund services |
Number of employees | 100+ (2016) |
Bracebridge Capital is a hedge fund headquartered in Boston, established in 1994 by Nancy Zimmerman and Gabriel Sunshine. The firm oversees investments for prominent endowments such as those of Yale University and Princeton University, and notably profited $1.5 billion from the Argentine debt restructuring. As of February 2016, Bracebridge's assets under management totaled $10.3 billion, making it the largest hedge fund managed by a woman worldwide. By 2017, Sunshine owned a 5% interest in the company.
History
Nancy Zimmerman, a Brown University graduate and former employee at Goldman Sachs, co-founded Bracebridge; she is married to Harvard professor Andrei Shleifer. Gabriel Sunshine, who graduated from Harvard, is wed to Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine, the co-chair of the Harvard College Fund and senior counsel at Bracebridge. The role of chief operating officer is held by John Spinney.
From its inception in 1994 through 2016, Bracebridge delivered an average yearly return of 10%. Initial backers included Tom Steyer's Farallon Capital and David F. Swensen, the manager of Yale’s endowment; subsequently, Andrew K. Golden from Princeton’s endowment also invested. By 2012, the firm’s assets under management had climbed to $5.8 billion.
By early 2016, Bracebridge expanded its workforce to over 100 employees and managed $10.3 billion in assets. In March of that year, the firm was one of four hedge funds to receive $1.5 billion from Argentina’s debt restructuring, yielding a 952% gain on bonds originally purchased for $120 million. This transaction attracted criticism from former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who condemned these firms as "vultures" and "financial terrorists."