The LSE Directory / Hedge funds
Appaloosa Management LP is an investment firm founded in early 1993 by David Tepper and Jack Walton, a former Goldman Sachs colleague, as a distressed debt investment shop. It invests across global public equity and fixed income markets, taking concentrated positions in distressed debt, high yield bonds, and event driven equity and credit situations rather than running a broadly diversified book. The firm was originally based in Chatham, New Jersey and relocated its headquarters to Miami Beach, Florida in January 2016. Appaloosa's approach centers on a small number of large, high conviction bets across corporate credit and equities, a style that produced some of the most cited trades in hedge fund history: distressed debt positions in Conseco and Marconi in 2002, a large stake in bankrupt auto parts supplier Delphi in 2007, and, most notably, purchases of Citigroup and Bank of America preferred shares near the bottom of the 2009 financial crisis. David Tepper has been the firm's sole senior decision maker on major allocations throughout its history. Institutional Investor has reported the firm compounded at over 25 percent annually from its 1993 inception, a track record built on sharp drawdowns followed by sharp recoveries rather than steady, low volatility returns; the firm's Palomino vehicle fell 26.7 percent in 2008 and then gained 117.3 percent in 2009. Tepper joined Goldman Sachs in 1985 and within about a year was running its high yield and distressed debt trading, but he was passed over for partner in 1988, 1990 and 1992 and left the firm; he and Walton launched Appaloosa in early 1993. The new fund returned about 57.6 percent in its first six months and grew assets under management to roughly 300 million dollars by 1994 and 800 million dollars by 1996. Appaloosa holds SEC investment adviser registration. In May 2019 Tepper began converting the firm from a hedge fund open to outside investors into what is effectively a single family office; reporting at the time linked the move to his preference to manage mostly his own capital, his relocation to Miami, and his purchase of the Carolina Panthers NFL franchise, and the firm returned the bulk of outside investor capital starting in 2020 while keeping a small number of legacy investors. Forbes estimated the firm's assets under management at approximately 17 billion dollars as of 2026, describing the total as now made up mostly of Tepper's personal capital rather than client money; SEC 13F filings showed a disclosed public equity portfolio of roughly 5.9 billion dollars as of the first quarter of 2026, with Amazon, Micron Technology, Alphabet, Uber Technologies and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing among its largest reported holdings. Appaloosa maintains no public marketing website; the domain appaloosamanagement.com no longer resolves to the firm and instead redirects to an unrelated third party site, consistent with an adviser that no longer solicits outside capital and discloses only what SEC filings require.
