Regal stockpickers face financial hit after Opthea blow up
The hedge fund's CEO has moved to quell concerns after it emerged that portfolio managers and traders are facing a steep financial hit from a disastrous biotech bet.
Regal Partners chief executive Brendan O'Connor has moved to quell ongoing market jitters about its disastrous investment in speculative biotech Opthea amid revelations the bad bet could cost key investment staff millions of dollars in bonuses.
Documents filed with the corporate regulator last week by Regal Partners' subsidiary Regal Funds Management, viewed by Capital Brief, show that the hedge fund's Opthea bet – which has blown a hole through the fund's performance figures – has smashed the more than $56 million in equity staff were expecting to share come August.
It comes after Regal was forced to write down its huge $220 million position in Opthea to zero earlier this month after the speculative biotech abandoned its promising but experimental eyesight treatment.
The fallout from the uncharacteristically poor trade has sunk Regal Partners' ASX shares to record lows this month. The stock now sits at $1.80 – a far cry from the $4.20 it was trading at in November as well as the $3.23 the last equity rights were issued to staff at in September.
