Q3 2026: On smoke, patience, and doubling our tahini exposure
Rates are high, valuations are rich and everyone is suddenly an expert in dips. A quarter in which we did very little, very deliberately.
Limited partners onlyبابا غنوج Multi-strategy · Long-biased · Est. 2014
Patient capital, slow-roasted.
Baba Ganoush Capital applies a time-honoured Levantine discipline to global markets. We source exceptional assets, hold them over an open flame for as long as it takes, and let the smoke do the compounding.
- $4.2B Assets under marination
- 18.7% Net annualised return since inception
- 1.58 Sharpe ratio, smoke-adjusted
- 0* Aubergines burnt since inception
* Charred, yes. Burnt, never.
As featured in
- The Mezze Street Journal
- Financial Thymes
- Institutional Ingredient
- THE SPREAD
“The most interesting fund nobody can get into. Also, frankly, the best-smelling.” — Financial Thymes
(01) Approach
A four-step process, unchanged for four thousand years.
Most funds chase the market. We prefer to roast it. Every position in the portfolio passes through the same four-stage discipline our founders learned in their grandmothers’ kitchens — long before they learned it at business school.
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01
Char
Origination
We place every opportunity directly over an open flame. Weak theses blister and collapse within minutes. The survivors develop the deep, smoky character we look for in a long-term holding.
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02
Peel
Due diligence
We remove the skin and examine what lies beneath — cash flows, management, seeds. Our diligence is famously hands-on and, on occasion, hot to the touch.
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03
Mash
Value creation
We work alongside management until the business is smooth, cohesive and free of lumps. Tahini is added for stability; garlic, sparingly, for conviction.
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04
Drizzle
Distribution
Returns are finished with a generous drizzle of extra-virgin alpha and served to our limited partners quarterly — chilled, or at room temperature.
(02) Performance
Eleven years of steady heat.
Flagship Fund I has compounded at 18.7% a year, net of fees, since inception — through two bear markets, one pandemic and the great tahini shortage of 2020.
Trailing returns annualised, to 31 Oct 2026
| 1Y | 3Y | 5Y | Since inception |
|---|
Risk since inception
- Volatility
- 10.6%
- Sharpe ratio
- 1.58
- Max drawdown
- −16.6%
- Garlic breath
- Moderate
Calendar-year returns net of fees, %
2014 from inception on 1 March. 2026 year to date. The Global Hummus Index is an unmanaged index of chickpea-based dips and cannot be eaten directly.
(03) Portfolio
Concentrated by design. Balanced by taste.
The recipe Allocation by ingredient, % of NAV
As of 30 September 2026. Garnish rebalanced quarterly. Allocations may vary by season and availability.
“Anyone can buy an aubergine. Very few have the patience to roast one properly. The market rewards those who can sit with the smoke.”
(04) Team
The partners.
A small kitchen by design. Our partners have worked together for over a decade and personally invest alongside our limited partners — usually with pita.
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Leila Batinjan
Founder & CIO
Previously ran the mezze opportunities desk at a global investment bank. Holds a CFA charter and strong views on cumin.
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Tarek Zaatar
Partner, Risk & Seasoning
Oversees position sizing and drawdown control. In eleven years, has never once over-salted a portfolio.
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Yasmin Limoun
Partner, Volatility
Runs the lemon book. Believes every portfolio needs acidity to cut through the richness of a bull market.
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Sami Thoum
Partner, Special Situations
Our garlic specialist. Small positions, outsized impact. Colleagues report he is best enjoyed in moderation.
(05) Letters & insights
From the kitchen.
The aubergine cycle: a forty-year view
Harvests, hedges and the surprisingly reliable relationship between global eggplant yields and credit spreads.
Why we don’t do hummus
Chickpeas are a crowded trade. A short note on differentiation in a world of me-too spreads.
(06) Investor relations
Request a seat at the table.
Flagship Fund I is currently closed to new investors. We admit a limited number of qualified limited partners once per harvest season.