Apollo Said to Shut Metals Hedge Fund in London

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen - Aug 10, 2010 6:12 PM GMT+0200

Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Management LP which is said to have closed its metals hedge fund in London.
Apollo Management LP, a private- equity firm co-founded by Leon Black, closed its metals hedge fund in London, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The New York-based firm put $40 million into the Apollo Metals Trading Fund, which started in March 2009, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. An outside spokeswoman for the firm declined today to say why Apollo shut the fund or to give the number of fund employees.

The fund traded industrial and precious metals and mining equities, Apollo said in the March 22 SEC filing. Mark Thompson, the fund’s manager, left the company in June.

Hedge funds investing in commodities fell 5.3 percent on average in 2010’s first half after last year’s drop, according to figures from Hedge Fund Research Inc. An index of the six main industrial metals traded on the London Metal Exchange slid 12 percent in the half as immediate-delivery gold rose 13 percent.

Apollo hired Greg Beard in June from Riverstone Holdings LLC as a senior partner focusing on commodities, according to one of the two people. Riverstone is a New York-based private- equity firm focusing on energy and power that managed about $17 billion as of June, its website shows.