Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater firm prepares for layoffs

Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, is feeling a little bloated.

The Westport, Conn., fund, which manages roughly $150 billion in assets, is looking to do a firm-wide “renovation” of its 1,700-person workforce, it said in a letter sent to clients on Thursday.

The letter was signed by six executives — three co-chief investment officers, two co-chief executive officers and one president.

The so-called renovation, which could include layoffs, will be felt most prominently in the firm’s noninvestment-focused areas such as technology, recruiting, facilities and management services, according to the letter, which was first reported by Business Insider.

Representatives from Bridgewater declined to give specific figures on the potential layoffs.

Citing a more than tenfold increase in headcount since 2003, Bridgewater said some areas of its business have become, “bloated, inefficient and bureaucratic.”

The renovation was unrelated to the firm’s spotty performance record in 2016, according to one source familiar with the situation.

Bridgewater has attracted $22.5 billion in new capital since 2015.

The firm’s longstanding internal policy of “radical transparency,” in which meetings are taped, has come under scrutiny in recent months — in large part because of a now-settled sexual harassment complaint.

“Some people absolutely hate it, and some people could never work anywhere else. So that’s by and large what it’s like,” Dalio said at an investor conference earlier this week.