Omega Advisors Chief Executive Leon Cooperman said he plans on turning his hedge fund into a family office, according to a report.
In a recent letter to clients, the prominent investor said he didn’t “want to spend the rest of” his life chasing the S&P 500, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Cooperman’s “chasing” comment refers to hedge funds’ use of the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.17% as a benchmark that they attempt to outperform to justify charging clients for managing money rather than investing in low-cost and passive exchange-traded funds.
The Omega executive’s move also comes after he settled in late May with the Securities and Exchange Commission to end what he described as an abusive regulatory process and to avoid a costly court case that he claims he would have won.
Cooperman agreed to pay $4.9 million on to settle insider-trading charges, without admitting wrongdoing. He told CNBC his lawyers advised him that a protracted legal battle with the Washington, D.C., regulator could cost him as much as $20 million and span several years.
The 75-year-old hedge-fund investor and New York native launched Omega in 2001 after running Goldman Sachs’s GS, +1.18% asset-management arm.
