Bracebridge Capital

Last updated
Bracebridge Capital
Company type Private
Founded1994
FounderNancy Zimmerman
Gabriel Sunshine
Headquarters15th floor, 888 Boylston Street,
Boston, Massachusetts
,
United States
Key people
John Spinney (chief operating officer)
Kirstan Barnett (general counsel & chief compliance officer)
Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine (senior counsel)
Wendy Sheu (Chief Compliance Officer)
Total assets $71.8 billion (2023)
Number of employees
150+
Website bracebridgecapital.com

Bracebridge Capital is a hedge fund based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was co-founded by Nancy Zimmerman and Gabriel Sunshine. [1] It manages funds from the endowments of Yale University and Princeton University. It also made $1.5 billion from the Argentine debt restructuring. As of February 2016, it had $10.3 billion of assets under management, making it the largest hedge fund managed by a woman in the world. Sunshine owns a 5% stake in Bracebridge as of 2017. [2] As of March 2023, Bracebridge Capital had $71.8 billion of assets under management. [3]

History

Bracebridge Capital was co-founded by Nancy Zimmerman and Gabriel Brendan Sunshine in 1994. [4] Zimmerman is a Brown alumna, former Goldman Sachs employee, and the wife of Harvard professor Andrei Shleifer. [5] [6]

Sunshine is a Harvard graduate, class of 1991, and the husband of Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine, [7] the co-chair of the Harvard College Fund, [8] who is also senior counsel to Bracebridge Capital. [9] [10] Its chief operating officer is John Spinney.

The fund had a 10% annual return from 1994 to 2016. [5] Initially, it received $50 million from Tom Steyer's Farallon Capital and David F. Swensen, who runs Yale University's endowment. [5] Later, Andrew K. Golden, the manager of Princeton University's endowment, also became a major investor in Bracebridge Capital. [5] By 2012, it had $5.8 billion of assets under management. [5]

By February 2016, it had assets of $10.3 billion, [11] making it the largest hedge fund managed by a woman in the world. [5] It also had more than 100 employees by February 2016. [5]

In March 2016, it was announced that the firm would receive $1.5 billion from the Argentine debt restructuring. [12] It was one of four hedge funds which former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called "vultures” and “financial terrorists." [13]

In April 2025, Bracebridge Capital was named among the lenders providing debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to Hooters of America during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. According to Bloomberg, the restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy with plans to restructure approximately $300 million in asset-backed bonds tied to its franchise operations. Bracebridge contributed to a $40 million DIP loan package, which included $35 million in new capital aimed at supporting the company’s operations during the reorganization process. [14] [15]

In October 2025, Global Witness reported that Bracebridge Capital was involved in shaping the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a $125 billion initiative to finance tropical forest conservation through market-based investments. The firm helped design financial structures for the initiative, which drew scrutiny from environmental groups over the role of private asset managers in global forest policy. [16]

References

  1. ↑ "Gabriel Sunshine". www.hks.harvard.edu. Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Gabriel Brendan Sunshine - Bracebridge Capital, LLC". Private Fund Data. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  3. ↑ "Why Bracebridge Capital: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio". Growth Equity Interview Guide. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
  4. ↑ "Company Overview of Bracebridge Capital, LLC". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Moroney, Tom; Willmer, Sabrina (February 4, 2016). "The Secretive Hedge Fund That's Generating Huge Profits for Yale". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ "2016 America's Self-Made Women: #46 Nancy Zimmerman". Forbes. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine, JD, MPP". Massachusetts General Hospital. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  8. ↑ Lewis, Loida Nicolas (26 November 2018). "Meet the first Fil-Am elected to Harvard overseers board". INQUIRER.net USA. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "I Choose Harvard: Geraldine Acuna '92". Harvard Alumni Association. Harvard University. January 2, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  10. ↑ "HCF Executive Committee". Harvard College Alumni. Harvard University. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Nancy Zimmerman". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  12. ↑ Stevenson, Alexandra (March 1, 2016). "Argentina's Hedge Fund Deal Frustrates Small Bondholders". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2017. Bracebridge Capital, another holdout hedge fund, will be paid $1.15 billion, representing a 952 percent return on bonds with principal worth $120 million, according to the data.
  13. ↑ Gilbert, Jonathan; Stevenson, Alexandra (February 29, 2016). "Argentina Reaches Deal With Hedge Funds Over Debt". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2017. The four holdout firms, including Aurelius, a hedge fund run by Mark Brodsky, a former trader at Mr. Singer's Elliott Management; Davidson Kempner; and Bracebridge Capital, have agreed not to try to prevent Argentina from raising new money, which it will need to do in order to pay the settlements it has made.
  14. ↑ Basu, Reshmi; Arroyo, Carmen (2025-04-01). "Bracebridge Capital to Provide Bankruptcy Loan to Hooters". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
  15. ↑ Ma, Dorothy (2025-04-02). "Court Approves Hooters' Bankruptcy Funding Plan". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
  16. ↑ Bindman, Polly (2025-10-09). "Banking on forests: Inside private sector plans to shape the Tropical Forests Forever Facility". Global Witness. Retrieved 2025-12-07.
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