from Zero Hedge
Until recently, funds that imposed redemption “gates” on their investors were those who had suffered a substantial mismatch between the illiquidity of their investments and the liquidity preference of their investors (which tends to be instantaneous), usually as a result of some exogenous event such as Brexit, or a media report sparking investor fears.
As a result, over the past 4 years we had seen a procession of prominent funds gating investors, starting with the junk bond fiasco at Third Avenue which led to a premature end for the asset manager, then the three largest UK property funds suddenly froze over $12 billion in assets in the aftermath of the Brexit vote; two years later the Swiss multi-billion fund manager GAM blocked redemptions, followed by iconic UK investor Neil Woodford also suddenly gating investors despite representations of solid returns and liquid assets, then it was the ill-named, Nataxis-owned H20 Asset Management decided to freeze redemptions; then the largest UK property fund, M&G, halted redemptions, and finally in December, distressed investing giants York Capital Management and Southpaw Asset Management also barred clients from redeeming money they have requested for year-end, a sign of the pressure that investors in distressed assets are facing.