Revealed: How the AC Milan ownership predicted the Coronavirus pandemic
As reported by Il Sole 24 Ore (via calcioefinanza.it), last February 1, while still no one in the West was worried about COVID-19, Paul Singer, the 75-year-old founder of the Elliott fund, had already taken pen and paper to recommend to his collaborators (473 professionals scattered among New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo) to stock up on water, food and medicine and to avoid public places and require themselves not to leave the house for at least a month because the virus was already subtly circulating among asymptomatic subjects.
The pessimism of reason prevented Elliot from taking back all the earnings from the beginning of the year, as the fund managed to close the quarter once again with a positive result of 2.2%, while Elliot Associated registered a positive result of 1.6%.
In contrast, activist funds reported a decline of 33% in the quarter to March 31 (-25% in the last month) and -8% for the general hedge funds (with a negative performance of around 6% in March).
Overall, Singer does not see the future very pink: he has written to his customers that he expects a decline in the market of more than 50% from the February highs.