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Cliff Asness' AQR has placed bets against Adyen and Worldline, two of Europe's biggest players in the buzzy payments space

Sep 30, 2019, 17:35 IST

Bloomberg Business

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  • AQR is betting against one-time unicorn Adyen Global, a Dutch payments company, and French payments company Worldline, according to data company Breakout Point.
  • The two short positions are worth a combined $175 million - roughly 0.5% of the firms' combined market caps.
  • AQR is the second hedge fund to take a big short position in Adyen, Breakout Point's data show, but hedge funds and investors in general have not bet against the growing payments space.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Payments company Adyen Global's soaring stock price - it's up more than 50% since it went public last June - has attracted another short-seller.

AQR, which runs more than $220 billion across its hedge funds, mutual funds, and other products, recently shorted the company, according to data company Breakout Point which tracks short positions in European companies. This follows a $115 million bet against the company by Mapleline Capital in February.

The fund declined to comment. The companies did not return requests for comment.

It's at least the second big short position AQR, which is a systematic manager that uses algorithms to determine its investments, has made in the payments sector. Breakout Point's data show that AQR also has a $71 million short on French payments company Worldline, which it made in August. No other hedge fund has a current short position this big in either company.

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See more: $183 million short-seller Spruce Point is targeting the maker of Trojan condoms and Arm & Hammer baking soda

AQR has not always been negative on the prospects of the growing European payments space, records show. These are the first short positions they have taken in the space, according to Breakout Point.

The firm doesn't do traditional fundamental reviews of companies, instead investing based on different factors in the manager's algorithm-led strategies. AQR also made bets against companies linked to Woodford Capital, the fund run by Neil Woodford that blew up over illiquid investments earlier this year.

See more: Citadel is the among hedge funds piling into shorts bets on European banks as record-low rates crush financial firms

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