IT'S NO surprise to learn that New York-based private equity firm Tiger Global has - in true hedge fund fashion - placed bets for and against the Irish property market.
Tiger Global emerged as the largest holder of short positions in Irish banks when the short-selling ban in September smoked out the mysterious investors who have been betting on the stocks falling.
Tiger has taken some shrewd gambles in recent years. The firm made a 71 per cent return on its investments in 2007 after fees.
Tiger's manager Chase Coleman is thought to have earned fees and profits of $400 million (€272 million) from the company's performance last year. At the end of last week, Tiger held a 0.78 per cent short position in Anglo Irish Bank. The firm has also taken a significant short position against Bank of Ireland. Both banks have heavy exposures to property, which has encouraged "hedgies" to take sizeable bets against the Irish banks due to the slump in the market. However, Tiger Global has hedged its Irish bets. The firm is also an investor in property website Daft.ie. after taking a stake in Daft Media last spring in a deal that made brothers Brian and Eamonn Fallon, the website's founders, multimillionaires.
Tiger Global owns stakes in other European property websites such as Rightmove.co.uk and French site Seloger.fr, and made an approach to the Dublin firm. Eamonn Fallon told a newspaper last April he felt the New York fund would be "ideal to help us grow the business".
