The liquidation of Archegos Capital’s forced position contributes to Viacom’s discovery

Part of the strong selling pressure on Friday in selective shares of US media and Chinese ADR on the Internet was due to the forced liquidation of charges of the multimillion-dollar family office, Archegos Capital Management, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.

Archegos Capital was founded by former Tiger Management equity analyst Bill Hwang.

ViacomCBS and Discovery media stocks, which have made big gains this year, suffered unusually strong selling pressure later this week and were said to be at least two of the shares in question, along with Chinese internet names. Baidu, Tencent, Vipshop and several. others.

ViacomCBS and Discovery closed more than 27% on Friday, with Viacom more than 50% during the week, while Discovery fell 45%. Companies have been sharply short amid investor skepticism about their long-term prospects in a crowded media environment.

During the week, Baidu fell more than 18%, Tencent more than 33% and Vipshop more than 31%.

CNBC contacted Archegos Capital, but no calls or emails were returned. The source said forced sales were likely related to margin calls due to heavily leveraged positions.

CNBC has also learned that Teng Yue Partners, an Asian-focused fund led by another former Tiger Management analyst, Tao Li, was negatively affected by the withdrawals of several of its key holdings. Although the fund was said to have fallen in March, it was still positive on YTD, according to the source.

CNBC has also contacted Teng Yue.

– CNBC’s Leslie Picker contributed to this report.