Updated

Phil King’s Regal writes Opthea to zero and backs off risky bets

Jonathan Shapiro and Mark Di Stefano

Updated Apr 2, 2025 – 12.50pm, first published at 10.27am

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Regal Partners has written off hundreds of millions of dollars invested in biotech hopeful Opthea and acknowledged the failure of its experimental vision loss treatment would mean a substantial hit to returns.

In a letter to investors, the firm’s veteran stockpicker Phil King said he took full responsibility for the loss, adding that the fund would pare back on risky bets in the future. Opthea represents one of Regal’s biggest investment failures and sent the firm’s share price tumbling last week.

Jonathan Shapiro writes about banking and finance, specialising in hedge funds, corporate debt, private equity and investment banking. He is based in Sydney.

Mark Di Stefano is Rear Window columnist, based in the Sydney newsroom. He previously worked at BuzzFeed, the Financial Times and The Information before joining the Financial Review as a media and tech correspondent.