ESL Investments is a

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

based in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

History

ESL Investments is managed by Edward Lampert, who founded it in April 1988 and named it after his initials. The firm invests in the American public equity and hedging markets. Managing the fund with a contrarian investing approach, Lampert is the company's chairman and chief executive officer, and William Crowley is its president and chief operating officer. ESL is fairly unusual as a hedge fund in that it takes large stakes in a small number of companies and holds them for many years. Most of ESL's portfolio consists of retail companies, particularly Kmart (now Transform SR Brands LLC), by far the company's largest holding (53.5% ownership as of June 2010). The revenue from Kmart plays a big part in helping ESL acquire other companies. Lampert began trading in stocks at the investment bank

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

during the 1980s. In 1988 Lampert founded ESL Investments with the backing of investor Richard E. Rainwater and initial outside investments worth $28 million. It was reported in 2004 that from 1988 through 2004 the fund returns averaged 29% a year. His clients have included David Geffen (1988 - 2007), Michael Dell, the Tisch family (owners of Loews Corporation), and the Ziff family (owners of

Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related servi ...

) (1988 - 2013). In 2004, the fund made Lampert the first hedge fund manager ever to make more than $1 billion in a year, when the fund grew 69%, following his decision to buy Kmart and merge it with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

. At the start of the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, however, ESL's retail holdings were severely affected due to a drop in

consumer spending Consumer spending is the total money spent on final goods and services by individuals and households. There are two components of consumer spending: induced consumption (which is affected by the level of income) and autonomous consumption (which ...

, and the company's investment in Citigroup in September 2007 saw a significant drop in value since the fund made its investment. Through the fund, Lampert is worth approximately $2 billion. Lampert, who typically invests in undervalued stocks, is known to have modeled his investing style on Warren Buffett's style by analyzing his annual shareholder letters.

Assets under management

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em, refs= {{cite web , access-date=2010-06-04 , url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3934534&page=1 , title=Hedge, private-equity managers bruised , work=ABC News , date=2007-11-29 , author=Krantz, Matt {{cite web , access-date=2010-06-04 , url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ai5qQcW6SJTI&refer=us , title=Lampert's ESL Fund Holds $800 Million Citigroup Stake (Update4) , publisher=Bloomberg , date=2007-05-16 , author1=Weiss, Miles , author2=DiStefano, Joseph N. {{cite web , access-date=2010-06-04 , url=http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Symbol=shld , title=Sears Holdings Corp: Ownership , publisher=MSN Money , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223224256/http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Symbol=SHLD , archive-date=2010-02-23 , url-status=dead {{cite web , access-date=2010-06-04 , url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1546464 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119015825/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1546464 , url-status=dead , archive-date=November 19, 2007 , title=ESL Investments Inc. , work=BusinessWeek {{cite web , access-date=2010-06-04 , url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2916456/Pay-packet-worth-1bn-makes-US-hedge-fund-manager-king-of-the-castle.html , title=Pay packet worth $1bn makes US hedge fund manager king of the castle , work=The Telegraph , date=2005-05-28 , author=Litterick, David Financial services companies established in 1988 Hedge fund firms in Connecticut Shareholder-rights activists