For thousands of employees of Citadel and Citadel Securities, the hedge fund and trading business founded by Ken Griffin, last weekend was spent riding the real things.
The billionaire picked up the tab for airfares from New York, Houston, Paris, Zurich and other cities and paid for hotels, park tickets and meals ranging from lamb chops to sushi and paella to applaud blockbuster returns and big anniversaries.Coldplay, the British rock band that Griffin is especially fond of, played at a concert on Saturday alongside singer Carly Rae Jepsen and DJ Diplo.
After the 2008 financial crisis, Wall Street firms that were criticized for their excesses have sometimes shied away from lavish gatherings or held them in private. Citadel's returns also topped those of rivals, like DE Shaw's Composite Fund, which is up 24% for the year, and Millennium International, which is up 10.2%.Over the last five years, Citadel's Wellington fund returned 172.2%, according to an investor, beating the S&P 500's 68.4% return and the average 25% return posted by hedge funds.