Returns To Sender, As Art Delivers Big

Date: Friday, August 10, 2007
Author: Hedge Fund Daily

Picture this: A hedge fund manager who can deliver 400% on his investments in a decade. It may sound surreal, but Adam Sender has done it, not by applying his HF acumen to something as mundane as dollars, but to works of fine art. Sender, who got his feet wet in hedge funds by working for the great master Steven Cohen, now claims art is his biggest asset. According to Bloomberg News, Sender was drawn to a different direction last year after so-so years in 2004 and 2006, and returned money as an extended period of low volatility took a toll on returns. Now, his art 800-work art collection, which has quadrupled in value, is his main asset and he’s enjoying growth typical hedgies could only dream about. “Who makes that kind of money in the stock market,” the founder of Exis Capital Management, which at its high point had more than $1 billion in assets under management, told BN. “In the hedge-fund business these days, you’re having a great year if you make 20%.” He is not the only hedge fund manager who digs art; so does his mentor, Cohen of SAC Capital Partners, and Daniel Loeb of Third Point, and their success comes not by accident. “They like to find art that will be desired and they apply the same amount of intelligence to collecting as they do to investing,” Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s said in a BN interview. While enjoying his success in art, Sender says his firm is prepared for a change in the market, too. “If we’re in a new phase of volatility, Exis is set up to do very well again.”