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How far flung bets scuttled Enso's post-crisis resurgence.
Josh Fink at the 2011 AR Symposium
His father may be one of the country's most successful money managers, but that hasn't helped Josh Fink beat the markets.
Enso Global Fund, managed by the son of BlackRock chairman Larry Fink, suffered a disastrous 2011, hurt by ill-timed concentrated positions in various natural resources stocks, according to investor documents obtained by AR. The losses have continued this year; Enso is down more than 7% through the end of April, a period when 76% of global equity funds in the AR database turned a profit.
Enso plunged 60.5% in 2011, its worst annual performance since inception, and dramatically worse than the 4.70% median drop for the AR Global Equity Index. Investors who entered Enso at its July 2002 launch would by now have earned a net annualized return of about 2.7%. During the same period, the MSCI World Index rose by 74.66%, a net annualized rate of 5.84%.
But few have taken the full ride with the 34-year-old Fink. Enso now manages just $44 million including leveraged assets, according to a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, down from as much as $700 million, excluding leverage, in 2008.
"Strategic Partners"
Times weren't always so gory for the University of Pennsylvania grad, class of 2000, who majored in history and spent his college years obtaining prestigious internships at Morgan Stanley and Tiger Management. After graduating, Fink worked at Tiger spinout Argonaut Capital Management, where he served as a portfolio manager and held a managing director title.
He founded Enso Capital Management in 2002 with $4 million at just 24 years old. The New York Post, in a 2008 story titled Chip Off the Old BlackRock, reported that Larry Fink initially tried to dissuade his son. Citing a former colleague who had invested in Enso, the article reported "the senior Fink eventually came around and gave his son start-up money - but not before stipulating he wanted to be paid back or else the sum would come out of his son's inheritance."
Fink used his father's reputation in selling Enso, said potential investors; one person pitched on Enso told AR that Fink had a habit of "dropping his father's...