tuesday March 30 2021
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley were quick to move large blocks of assets before other large banks that traded with Archegos Capital Management, as the scale of the hedge fund’s losses became apparent, according to people with knowledge of the transactions. The strategy helped limit the U.S. firms’ losses in last week’s epic stock liquidation, they said.
Losses at Archegos, run by former Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, have triggered the liquidation in excess of $30 billion in value. Banks were continuing to sell blocks of stocks linked to Archegos Monday, traders said.
“This is a challenging time for the family office of Archegos Capital Management, our partners and employees. All plans are being discussed as Mr. Hwang and the team determine the best path forward,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement Monday evening.
Archegos took big, concentrated positions in companies and held some positions in a mix of stock and swaps. Swaps are a common arrangement in which a trader gets access to the returns generated by a portfolio of shares or other assets in exchange for a fee.
Losses threatened to spill over into the so-called prime brokerage businesses that have been handling the firm’s trading. The group of large Wall Street banks includes Goldman, Morgan, Credit Suisse Group AG, Nomura Holdings Inc., UBS Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG , said people familiar with the firm’s trading.
On Thursday, Archegos asked banks handling its business to meet to hash out a strategy to liquidate its holdings, said a person familiar with the meeting. The firm’s largest positions had turned sharply negative following a long run-up. A proposal emerged for all the banks to hold off on large trades and to talk further over the weekend, but the call ended without any agreement.
On Friday morning, banks started seizing Archegos’ stock, and Goldman Sachs started selling in size. It quickly became clear there would be little to no coordination among the banks.
Goldman and Morgan each raced to liquidate positions tied to Archegos.
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