Bridgewater Associates nets $22 million package from state

Bridgewater Associates, generally regarded as the world’s largest hedge fund, is receiving aÂ $22 million loan and grant package from the state bond commission to help it upgrade and expand its Westport headquarters at 1 Glendinning Place.

According to comments made to the Financial Times by Catherine Smith, commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut could have lost as much as $4.87 billion over the next 10 years had Bridgewater gone forward with a potential plan to relocate to New York City.

The bond commission approved $5 million in grants and a $17 million loan that will be forgiven if the company creates 750 jobs by 2021 to go along with the roughly 1,400 it currently employs. Bridgewater, which has $146 billion of assets under management and is headed by billionaire founder and CEO Ray Dalio, had previously sought a $130 million package from the state to move to new offices in Stamford.

Connecticut is charging Bridgewater an interest rate of 1 percent, compared to its usual 2 to 4 percent lending rate and its roughly 3.25 percent cost of capital, Smith told FT.

Bridgewater reportedly plans to spend a total of $527 million to expand its facilities in Westport, Wilton and Norwalk.

According to Institutional Investor”™s Alpha”™s 2016 Rich List,Â Dalio earned about $1.4 billion last year; per the Bloomberg BillionairesÂ Index, he is reportedly worth about $14.1 billion, making him the 60th richest person in the world.