(Reuters) – Point72 Asset Management, billionaire Steven Cohen’s investor, has lost nearly 15% this year due to a sharp rise in the shares of video game retailer GameStop Corp, the New York Times reported Wednesday nyti.ms/2YiotoW .
The loss to Point72, which manages nearly $ 19 billion in assets, comes in part from its investment in the Melvin Capital Management hedge fund, which had made a massive bet against GameStop, the report said.
But as GameStop has grown 700% in the past two weeks, fueled by growing interest among amateur investors, Melvin has faced sharp losses.
One of the rescuers was Cohen’s hedge fund, which manages about $ 1 billion with Melvin, the NYT said.
Point72 decided to add $ 750 million, Melvin said Monday, in addition to accepting a $ 2 billion investment from Citadel, the Chicago hedging fund led by Ken Griffin.
Point72 declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
A Melvin spokesman, founded in 2014 by Gabriel Plotkin, said the fund closed its position in GameStop and repositioned its portfolio.
Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur