An oil pump works at sunset Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015, in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain.
- London-based Lansdowne Partners had a high-flying clean-energy fund that beat the overall market in 2019, when stocks soared, but the fund was one of many hit hard by a tough March.
- The firm's larger Energy Dynamics fund is up for the year and didn't lose money in March, despite investing in more traditional energy sources like oil, which has seen prices crash.
- The world's most prominent oil trader, Pierre Andurand, has soared despite the price crash, making more than 55% in March, according to Bloomberg.
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Lansdowne Partners' two energy-focused hedge funds have started 2020 going the opposite direction they went in 2019.
The firm's $220 million clean energy fund broke-through in 2019, besting a soaring stock market with 37% returns. Per Lekander, the portfolio manager for the fund, told Business Insider earlier this year that 2019 was the year when the world woke up to climate change.
"This is not a one-year fad," he said in January. "I'm not changing anything."
Three months and one global pandemic later, the clean-energy fund is no longer flying high. Sources say the fund fell more than 18% in March through March 27 after coming into the month roughly flat. The firm's Energy Dynamics fund however, which made just over 1% in 2019 and is also managed by Lekander, is up nearly 7% through the same time-span, despite investing across traditional energy sources and its infrastructure as oil prices crash.
Clean-energy firms, while still set to take over more and more share of the energy market in coming years, are not immune to the economic downturn, with popular solar power company Sunrun laying off at least 100 people, and solar installations expected to decline for the first time in a decade.
Lansdowne declined to comment.
Oil's shocking collapse tied with the pandemic caused by the coronavirus has tanked global markets, as some analysts believe oil producers will be paying people to take their oil thanks to a glut of cheap supply from Saudi Arabia and Russia. KKR's Blackgold fund told investors in mid-March that the environment was similar to early 2016, when many oil-only funds were put out of business due to another crash in price.
This glut's impact has created some fortunes however, with hedge funds like Massar Capital betting against the oil and profiting. Arguably the world's most well-known oil trader, Pierre Andurand, put up returns over 55% in March, according to Bloomberg.
Lansdowne's main fund fell 13% in March, Bloomberg reported, while the smaller Princay fund fell as much as 35%. Assets in the long-running fund manager have fallen from $22 billion five years ago to $9 billion now.
