Billionaire George Soros' investment firm, Soros Fund Management bought shares of ViacomCBS, Discovery and Baidu as they were being sold off during the meltdown of Bill Hwang's Archegos Capital Management, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday .
The fund bought US$194 million of ViacomCBS, Baidu stock valued at US$77 million, as well US$46 million of Vipshop Holdings Ltd and US$34 million of Tencent Music Entertainment Group during the first quarter, the report said citing a regulatory filing released on Friday.The company didn't hold the shares prior to Archegos's implosion, a person familiar with the fund's trading told Bloomberg.
Archegos, a family office run by ex-Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang was highly exposed to ViacomCBS, whose shares plunged in March, leaving the hedge fund facing a massive margin call from its prime broker banks. Archegos was unable to meet the call to secure the equity swap trades that the banks had partly financed.
Global banks lost nearly US$10 billion from the Archegos fallout. Credit Suisse, Nomura Holdings and Morgan Stanley were some of the banks that were hit.