Meriwether to Close Hedge Fund: Report

John Meriwether plans to shut the hedge fund he started after the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management LP in 1998, Bloomberg reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Long-Term Capital lost more than 90% of its $4.8 billion of assets in the weeks following Russia's currency devaluation and bond default, Bloomberg notes, and the Federal Reserve had to orchestrate a massive bailout of the fund.

The decline of Meriwether's current firm, JWM Partners LLC, played out over months, with its main fund losing 44% from September 2007 to February 2009, the news agency reports.

JWM Partners, based in Greenwich, Conn., managed about $1 billion at the beginning of 2008, according to Bloomberg. Meriwether didn't return a telephone call and an e-mail seeking comment from Bloomberg.