Lucky in politics, unlucky in business. This seems to be the fate of Donald Trump, front runner of the Republican primaries and now the favorite to be nominated in the presidential elections in November: if his popularity continues to grow, the same cannot be said of his financial activities. Even if, all in all, compared to his assets, the losses seem rather painless.
To reveal it is Reuters: of the 21 investment funds o hedge funds that were part of the tycoon's portfolio in 2015, 18 turned out to be a flop. In 2016, at the moment, they are still at a loss in 17, ie 80% of its assets under management: among these Reuters mentions Baron Capital, Invesco, Blackrock, Paulson, MidOcean.
But Trump has also (actually, above all) invested directly in shares, following a very patriotic logic which, however, evidently has not paid off. He excluded Noble, Enbridge and Volkswagen (which alone, in the last 12 months, has lost almost 50% following the Dieselgate scandal), on Wall Street the Republican candidate has staked everything on the big stars and stripes: Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Wal-Mart, GE, IBM Caterpillar, Altria, Bristol Myers, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs. All titles – more or less – penalized by the market turmoil in recent months.
In all, Trump placed 120 million dollars (of which three-quarters in shares): all in all a small figure compared to his fortune, which between hotels, casinos and real estate of various kinds is estimated at between 5 and 10 billion dollars (although many of its businesses are heavily indebted, as is known). “I invested the money from my friends – the controversial entrepreneur candidly admitted -: I don't even know how those stocks are doing, I can only say that they are excellent investments”.
Friends, but not only. Reuters also noted that Trump, grudgingly, still owns shares in the television group Comcast, although this has decided not to spread the Miss Universe contest produced by the tycoon anymore, after his very undiplomatic statements towards Mexican immigrants. His main investment appears to be in Blackrock's Obsidian fund, while the "shark" Trump confirmed his disposition adverse to safe haven assets: Placed less than $250.000 in gold and a similar amount in asset management firm Gamco's gold fund.
Finally, Trump confirmed his disinclination to alternative management tools: “I don't believe much in hedge funds", he said. And they don't believe him much: according to a survey by the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable, the fund lobbies have always preferred Jeb Bush as candidate in the Republican primaries. Only a quarter of those interviewed would have supported Trump: now that Bush has left the scene (as well as Rubio, in third place in the poll), will they change their mind?
