Inside Viking’s Private Investment Strategy

Viking Global Investors’ hybrid fund suffered a setback in the second quarter.

Viking Global Opportunities, which invests in both private and public securities, lost more than 4 percent in the second quarter despite gaining 60 basis points in June, says someone who has seen the results. This meant a decline of 2.6 percent over the first half of the year, according to a preliminary estimate viewed by a knowledgeable source.

VGO also lagged Viking’s two main funds in the first six months, with Viking Global Equities, the hedge fund, up 8.2 percent and Viking Long Fund up 10.7 percent. This is a reverse of last year, when VGO was up 22.6 percent.

It is unclear what percentage of the fund is invested in private companies and which portion of the portfolio is doing better. All capital in the hybrid fund not invested in private companies replicates the portfolio of VGE, the firm’s long-short hedge fund.

Viking’s private portfolio did well in the first quarter,

Institutional Investor previously reported that in the first three months, Viking Global Opportunities Drawdown, which invests only in private companies, was up 14.7 percent gross and 11.6 percent net. The second-quarter results are not yet known.

Viking, headed by Tiger Cub O. Andreas Halvorsen, manages approximately $48 billion, according to its website. It does not emphasize the kinds of tech and internet investments that its fellow Tiger-related funds gravitate to, in either the public or private portfolios.

Viking currently has more than $15 billion in its private portfolio of more than 75 companies, according to the website. Viking’s private investments have heavily emphasized health care, life sciences, biopharma, and other medical-related companies. “We seek companies with breakthrough therapies and technologies that have the potential to create significant value,” the website states.

The firm’s private equity also targets software and enterprise technology, prioritizing midstage B2B enterprise software companies, according to the website.

So far this year, Viking has made at least 11 new private investments, including two already in August, according to Crunchbase. Viking led four of the 11 financing rounds. In 2023, the hedge fund completed 17 private investments, and 15 in 2022, according to Crunchbase. Three of this year’s investments were in venture rounds, and another two in Series A rounds.

Last month, Viking also co-led a $650 million Series F funding round for market intelligence and search platform AlphaSense, bringing its valuation to $4 billion. In July, AlphaSense also closed its acquisition of Tegus, a provider of research, private company content, and financial data and workflow tools.

In Viking’s public portfolio, the three largest U.S.-listed long positions as of March 31 were Visa, software maker Workday, and Amazon.