(Bloomberg) -- Viking Global Investors’ move to reduce risk, concentrate long wagers and hold onto its short bets helped the hedge fund limit losses in the first half of 2022 and outperform several stock-picking peers.

Andreas Halvorsen’s $19 billion flagship fund gained 2% last month, paring its decline for the year to 7.4%, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. While the fund is on track to post the worst annual loss in its 22-year history, that performance is far better than other so-called Tiger Cubs, some of which tumbled 30% or more this year. 

“Lower net exposure and better balance between our longs and shorts by industry and valuation multiples reduced the impact of the broader market selloff,” Viking told investors Tuesday. “Our shorts in unprofitable, growth-oriented companies produced significant alpha during the quarter.” 

Unlike many of its rivals, Viking’s hedge fund has no exposure to private equity and comparatively less to technology companies. It has more exposure to health care than any other sector. 

A spokesman for Greenwich, Connecticut-based Viking declined to comment.

Short bets against health care, financial and information-technology companies were the five best-performing investments for Viking’s hedge fund. Its biggest losers were bullish wagers on Amazon.com Inc., General Electric Co., Workday Inc., Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. 

The firm’s smaller long-only fund tumbled 24% through June, trailing the 21% decline for the S&P 500.

Over the past six months, Viking removed “meaningful risk” from its portfolio and limited directional bets on individual sectors, according to the letter. It also concentrated its long wagers in businesses with more predictable earnings streams.  

“Our more conservative posture should help protect the portfolio from macroeconomic changes, valuation shocks and sudden market movements,” Viking told investors.  

Viking’s total assets under management dropped by about $10 billion this year to $37 billion, in part because of investor redemptions. 

The firm also addressed its plans to launch the Viking Structured Capital fund, which will provide cash to struggling public and private companies. Bloomberg previously reported that Viking is seeking to raise at least $1 billion for the fund, joining fellow Tiger Cub Coatue Management, which is targeting $2 billion for a similar vehicle. 

“Businesses seeking capital increasingly face the difficult choice of raising equity at lower valuations or expensive debt with onerous covenants,” Viking wrote. “We believe we are in the early innings of a paradigm shift in markets and that Viking is well positioned to capitalize on it.”

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