If hedge funds had their second worst year on record in 2011 as a new study shows, Fairfield County had one of its best years since the industry began blossoming here years ago.
With no fanfare ”“ and no incentives from Connecticut ”“ Westport-based Bridgewater Associates subleased 225,000 square feet of space at Wilton Woods Corporate Center, potentially providing room for the largest expansion undertaken yet by the world”™s largest hedge fund.
Although the Ray Dalio-led company did not provide information on the sublease after the deal was signed, many in Fairfield County saw it as a major vote of confidence in the market”™s appeal for major financial companies, especially as Connecticut clung to UBS AG”™s operations in Stamford with $20 million in new incentives over five years, all to guarantee a workforce at under half the Swiss company”™s employee base at the peak of the last economic cycle.
If UBS established Fairfield County”™s reputation as a locale for financial companies ”“ while reminding many of the draw New York City remains for some ”“ Bridgewater has burnished that reputation, and at a critical time.
With hedge funds making money by correctly betting on movements in the market, up or down, the best companies have the ability to withstand recessionary times in ways other industries cannot. Still, as a group hedge funds performed poorly in 2011, with an industry index published by Eurekahedge Pte. Ltd. dropping 4.1 percent.
The aiCIO trade publication published by Stamford-based Asset International Inc. dubbed Dalio the “Steve Jobs of investing,” in reference both to Bridgewater”™s ballyhooed success as well as Dalio”™s renown unorthodox methods to extract maximum creativity coupled with his performance from his workforce. That has resulted in a 25 percent turnover rate for employees in their first 18 months with the company, aiCIO added.
Dalio, like Jobs, has put greater stock in his firm’s own forward-looking thought processes than in market demand, according to aiCIO Editor Kip McDaniel.
“Both men presumed to know what the customer wanted before customers were even aware of their needs,” McDaniel stated in a press release, citing Bridgewater’s pioneering quest to separate portfolio returns from market behavior and Jobs”™ insistence in 1983 that Apple customers learn to use a mouse. These developments resulted not from listening to clients, but from prompting customers to think and act differently, McDaniel said.
If NBC Sports Group”™s relocation to Stamford was Fairfield County”™s deal of the year, it was Bridgewater Associates that needed the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport to accommodate its 2011 holiday party, as reported by The New York Times and other publications.
As for future growth? Bridgewater is mum, even as speculation still percolates in the commercial real estate industry that Bridgewater may ultimately be eyeing UBS to see if the company abandons Stamford, making the company”™s massive trading floor and adjoining offices available for its own use. For a company that runs shuttle buses out of New York, the UBS offices adjacent to the Stamford Transportation Center would represent a major upgrade.
