Ken Griffin Open to Citadel Stake Sale, Warns of Tariff Risks

(Bloomberg) -- Ken Griffin said he would consider selling a piece of Citadel, the $65 billion multistrategy hedge fund he founded in 1990.

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“We would be open to the possibility of selling a minority stake in Citadel at some point in the future,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday at the Economic Club of New York.

In the wide-ranging conversation, Griffin also discussed the kind of firm he might consider for such a partnership, ruled out the possibility of taking its sister market-making firm Citadel Securities public any time soon, and offered praise and caution for the incoming Donald Trump administration.

Two years ago, Sequoia Capital paid $1.15 billion for a stake in Citadel Securities, valuing the market maker at $22 billion at the time. When asked what kind of partner Griffin would consider for the hedge fund, he said he’d look for a firm “that feels like Sequoia, that’s going to push us to be better at what we do in running our business day-in and day-out.”

Griffin said Citadel Securities received an offer from a private equity firm to invest $5 billion a few days ago, which would facilitate the company staying private for longer. But he said the market maker is steering clear of an IPO for “the foreseeable future,” due to regulatory burdens on public companies.

“The quilt work of regulatory burdens on public companies has become so great that you’re seeing a rapid diminution in the number of public companies, and you’re seeing privately held firms stay private much, much longer,” Griffin said Thursday.

‘Slippery Slope’

The discussion’s breadth underscored Griffin’s role as one of the most influential figures on Wall Street and a major donor to Republican politicians. He donated more than $100 million to pro-Republican political action committees in this presidential cycle, according to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets. None of that money went to support Trump’s campaign.

Griffin said that under Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission, “we won’t spend the next four years trying to figure out what problem SEC is trying to solve for.” He predicted that much of Chair Gary Gensler’s agenda won’t survive, given court cases and the new leadership of the SEC.

But he sounded a warning on tariffs. While companies would initially get a “sugar rush” from eliminating global competition, tariffs would eventually lead to diminished growth and innovation, according to Griffin.

“I’m much more concerned that this is the beginning of a slippery slope toward economic irrelevance” and a decline in productivity, he said.

Republicans should also be mindful of the effect of tax cuts on the growing national debt, Griffin said. That party, who will control the White House and both chambers of Congress in January, will need to look at cutting spending, as well, he cautioned. Griffin acknowledged that doing so will be difficult because “these are really unpopular decisions for politicians to make.”

Griffin also reiterated comments he made earlier this week about his concerns over Trump’s stated plans for mass deportations of immigrants.

“It’s an area of real concern to me because much of our nation’s success is rooted in our ability to attract the best and brightest from around the world to work with American firms and to start American firms,” he said. While he said US immigration policy is “broken,” he said he’d like to see a “thoughtful” immigration policy “that protects this nation’s great stature in the world of being the country you come to pursue your dreams.”

Weighing in on the candidates to become the next Treasury secretary, Griffin said he’d love for Apollo Global Management Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan to accept the role if Trump offers it.

“Marc, please take the job,” he said.

--With assistance from Katherine Doherty, Bill Allison and Hadriana Lowenkron.

(Updates with additional context starting in third paragraph)

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