Carlyle Fund Walloped in Commodities Rout (+scores of other commods. funds shut down)

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This week alone, commodity-trading firms Armajaro Asset Management LLP and Black River Asset Management LLC, a unit of agricultural conglomerate Cargill Inc., said they are closing funds. Several other firms that managed billions of dollars already have closed their doors, including London-based Clive Capital LLP and BlueGold Capital Management LLP. Large money managers including Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP and Fortress Investment Group LLC have wound down commodity strategies...

Assets under management at commodity hedge funds have fallen 15%, to $24.1 billion, since their peak in 2012, and nearly 30 firms out of 250 have shut down since that year, according to industry consultant HFR Inc. Commodity firms lost money for three years in a row before 2014, HFR said.

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Christopher Nygaard and Drew Gilbert, who co-founded Vermillion in 2005 and sold a majority equity stake in the firm to Carlyle in 2012, left at the end of June, according to people with knowledge of the firm's operations. Vermillion is retreating from prior investments in oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore and agriculture, and traders and strategists involved in managing those strategies are leaving, these people said.