Exclusive-Blackstone’s Horizon head Scott Bommer to leave company

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blackstone Group (NYSE:)’s Scott Bommer, who oversaw its hedge fund unit’s growth strategy Horizon platform, is leaving the company for health reasons, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Bommer, a former hedge fund manager, joined Blackstone in 2021 as a senior managing director when the company was overhauling its $81 billion Blackstone Alternative Asset Management hedge fund unit known as BAAM.

The Blackstone Horizon platform will now be run by an investment committee led by BAAM Global Head Joe Dowling, the sources said.

The Horizon platform, where Bommer, 56, was chief investment officer, was designed to tap into big themes by investing in fast growing public and private companies. It launched with roughly $2 billion in capital in July 2021.

A Blackstone representative declined to comment and Bommer could not be reached for comment.

The platform resonated with investors who committed capital quickly, making it one of Blackstone’s successful new launches.

Before coming to Blackstone, Bommer ran hedge fund SAB Capital for 17 years investing in stocks, debt and mortgages.

Bommer was the first big hire brought in by Dowling, after he joined Blackstone in early 2021 to help overhaul the hedge fund unit. Bommer’s resume fit Dowling’s taste for hiring top staff who had experience investing money not just allocating it.

Horizon was set up to deliver big returns but performance has been challenged as the platform launched shortly before markets turned. Management pulled back on investments as stock markets tumbled in early 2022 and stopped short of making new investments.

Horizon is down 22% on the total fund since its launch, a person familiar with the numbers said. The fund has purchasing power of approximately $1 billion the person said.

Other hedge funds that pursue similar growth strategies also suffered losses. Last year Tiger Global Management lost 56% while Whale Rock Capital Management ended with a 43% loss, Reuters reported previously.

BAAM’s performance however has been strong and despite last year’s drop in stocks and bonds, 2022 marked BAAM’s best return in years relative to market performance. The unit reported a net 4.1% gain compared with a 16.9% decline in a so-called 60/40 portfolio, which splits allocations between stocks and bonds and is typically used by institutional investors as a benchmark.

In the five years to 2021, when Dowling arrived, the unit trailed the strategy by an annualized -5.2%.