A new Legend: Robert Gibbins

We are excited to report the addition of Robert Gibbins to our roster of Legends. The founder and portfolio manager of Autonomy Capital has been one of our most respected hedge fund managers for many years. With his local, on-the-ground style of due diligence Robert has been consistently successful in identifying macro-economic developments early on and capitalizing on them. With the fund being closed for new capital we are happy that our long-standing relationship with the manager has swayed them to make an exception for Legends Fund.

Robert Gibbins

Robert Gibbins (1970) received a BS degree in Economics (cum laude) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to founding Autonomy Capital in 2003, he was the head of Emerging Markets and Global Macro Proprietary Trading at Lehman Brother during its heydays of 1996-2003. Before that he was responsible for Lehman’s FX and Interest rate trading within Northern Europe. He began his career at JP Morgan in 1992.

Mr. Gibbins works from Autonomy’s office in Nyon, Switzerland, but travels extensively to do on-the-ground research across both developed and emerging markets. This local, in-country research is one of the key characteristics of this manager’s strategy and it sets him apart from most of his peers.

We have been invested with Mr. Gibbins for well over 10 years in our individual accounts and have experienced first-hand his ability to spot important structural developments early on and to successfully position his fund to capitalize on them. He holds a low profile and will rarely make public appearances.

The Autonomy Global Macro Fund

Robert Gibbins launched the Autonomy Global Macro Fund in 2003. He remains responsible for all of Autonomy’s investment activities today. The fund specializes in thematic, multi-asset class investing with a bias towards emerging markets. Autonomy employs a combination of top-down global macroeconomic analysis with fundamental bottom-up security selection. The cornerstone of Autonomy’s investment process involves local, in-country research and due diligence yielding relationships that fortify the firm’s invaluable global intelligence network.

Autonomy’s team stands out in analyzing and deciphering political and cultural macroeconomics. The investment professionals have extensive experience conducting research, investing, and advising governments on economic policy. 

The Autonomy Global Macro Fund has a flexible approach and implements investment ideas through sophisticated trade expression in all asset classes with a focus on rates, foreign exchange, credit and equity instruments. The team exists of 114 people across 7 offices. 26 of these are investment professionals for the Macro Fund. The firm’s investment team ranks among the best in the world in the area of emerging markets and has seen little turnover over the years.

The Autonomy Global Macro Fund is closed for new capital as the manager wants to avoid diluting its return prospects. Robbert Gibbins has the vast majority of his own money invested in the fund and is the fund’s single largest investor by a significant margin.

Results and investment themes

Since its inception in November 2003 the Autonomy Global Macro Fund has achieved an annual net return of 14%. This compares very positively to the 7.9% annual return for the MSCI World Total Return index. The result has been achieved with a volatility that has been lower than that of equity markets. Year-to-date to the end of May the fund is up 9.5%. This follows a year of 24% returns in 2016, a remarkable result in itself but especially given the fact that most macro managers struggled to report positive numbers. Positions in Brazil, Iceland and Venezuela were important drivers of the recent results. Since the beginning of this year these positions have been materially reduced (Brazil, Venezuela) or completely exited (Iceland). May provided a good example of how this manager typical works. Whereas many other investors piled into Brazil more recently, Mr. Gibbins had already reduced his positions significantly after large gains early on. This allowed him to rebuild positions when the Brazilian markets tanked on May 18th due to rumors that Brazilian President Michel Temer was implicated in a bribery scheme. Brazil in Gibbins’ view is in a much better place relative to 2015 and this presented an opportunity to add some risk at attractive levels.

Currently, some of the fund’s other important positions are in US and European interest rates, Mexican Peso and Russian Ruble (long) and South African Rand (short), Puerto Rican general obligation bonds, Egyptian and Venezuelan government bonds. The fund also holds short S&P and Russell 2000 positions.