Bridgewater Associates plans new partnership structure

Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, the world”™s largest hedge fund, is being reorganized into a partnership structure that will cede more control to top executives.

The $150 billion fund was founded Ray Dalio, who has run the business with his co-chief investment officers Bob Prince and Greg Jensen. In the new partnership structure, other senior executives within Bridgewater will have a greater voice in how the fund is managed and will also have a greater economic stake in the business.

Bridgewater Associates did not make a public statement of this executive change, which was announced in a corporate correspondence obtained by the New York Times. “This will both broaden the ownership across the firm and help us remain employee controlled for generations to come,” Bridgewater”™s co-chief executives, David McCormick and Eileen Murray, wrote in a letter to the company”™s clients.

The Times, citing “people with direct knowledge of the matter,” added that Dalio has no plans to take his company public. Nor has the exact nature of the new partnership structure been finalized, although the plan announced to Bridgewater clients could involve 50 individuals known as “employee partners” who already own what the company dubbed “phantom equity,” which allows them to reap some of Bridgewater”™s profits without being owners of the firm.

“Consistent with our way of operating, we are providing transparency of this progress to our employees and our clients, and we look forward to sharing further details as they emerge,” McCormick and Murray wrote in the letter to clients.