Segantii Capital Management was a Hong Kong–based hedge fund founded in 2007 by Simon Sadler. In May 2024, the firm announced its closure after Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission charged it, Sadler, and a former trader with insider trading. The charges alleged insider dealing related to a block trade of the shares of Esprit Holdings in June 2017. The fund, managing US$4.8 billion in assets, faced nearly US$1 billion in investor withdrawal requests, prompting Sadler and the firm’s chief executive officer, Kurt Ersoy, to wind down Segantii’s operations and return capital to investors.
Sadler had been born and raised in Blackpool, a working-class seaside town in north-west England. He named his hedge fund “Segantii” after a pre-Roman tribe that was believed to have once inhabited the Blackpool area.
Segantii Capital Management specialized in speculating when block trades—a large private share sale in a company—would take place. In its first 15 years, the firm reportedly had only one loss-making year. When Archegos Capital collapsed and the Wall Street banks started to sell their underlying stock, Segantii was reportedly there buying it up. How a hedge fund might come to know or suspect that a block trade was in the offing was a significant gray zone in which Segantii was able to make enormous profits.
However, Sadler and Segantii had a history of regulatory issues, including a US$1.08 million fine from South Korean regulators in December 2023 for hedging trades.
Despite strong past performance, including returns of 23.8% in 2008 and 40.75% in 2011, the insider trading allegations led to the fund’s closure, impacting 140 employees across offices in Hong Kong, New York, London, and Dubai.
Sources:
Chan, Michelle (2024), “Segantii Hedge Fund Insider Trading Case Moved to Higher Court in Hong Kong,” Reuters.com, June 12: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/segantii-hedge-fund-insider-tr… hyperlink all URLs in website sources>
Chen, Lulu Yilun, Hu, Bei, Kumar, Nishant, Tan, Gillian, & Chan, Cathy (2024), “The Rise and Fall of Simon Sadler’s Segantii, One of Asia’s Most Successful Hedge Funds,” Bloomberg.com, May 24: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-24/the-rise-and-fall-of-simon-sadler-s-segantii-one-of-asia-s-top-hedge-funds
Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (2024), “Court Sets Trial Date for Insider Dealing Case Against Segantii Capital Management and Its Chief Investment Officer,” SFC, HK, December 19: https://apps.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/news-and-announcements/…
Hu, Bei, Kumar, Nishant, Tan, Gillian, & Chan, Cathy (2024), “Segantii Hedge Fund to Shutter Amid Insider Trading Charges,” Bloomberg.com, May 23: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-23/segantii-hedge-fund-…
Morris, Hugh (2024), “‘Bun Fight’ Over Top Staff at Defunct Hong Kong Hedge Fund as Juniors Are Left Behind,” eFinancialCarers, July 3: https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/bun-fight-over-top-staff-at-defu…
No author listed (2024), “Segantii to Shutter and Return Capital as Insider Trading Case Escalates,” HedgeWeek, May 24: https://www.hedgeweek.com/segantii-insider-trading-case-escalated-to-higher-hk-court/
No author listed (2024), “Segantii Capital Management Initiates Capital Return Process Amid Wind-Down,” HedgeWeek, June 24: https://www.hedgeweek.com/segantii-capital-management-initiates-capital…
Wiggins, Kaye (2025), “Inside the Downfall of Trading Titan and Blackpool FC Owner Simon Sadler,” The Financial Times, March 13: https://www.ft.com/content/44203051-afcf-4c59-b758-b588bb8aae5f