Hedge Fund Manager, Intent on Market, Misses Maserati

Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Author: David Clarke and Brian Lysaght

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bertrand Des Pallieres, founder of the SPQR Capital LLP hedge fund, said he was so focused on the swings in financial markets that he didn't notice his 80,000- pound ($160,000) sports car had been impounded by London authorities.

The 39-year-old, who quit Deutsche Bank AG in April to set up the fund, said in a telephone interview he amassed ``thousands of pounds'' in fines from unpaid congestion-charge fees and taxes. Authorities seized the blue Maserati Cambiocorsa in late May. Des Pallieres didn't realize it had been taken until this month.

``I was distracted by the market turmoil,'' said Des Pallieres, who doesn't use the car during the week because he can walk to his office in the St. James's district of London in 15 minutes. ``My assistant at Deutsche Bank used to take care of the road tax.''

The car was seized because the owner hadn't paid U.K. annual vehicle tax, said a spokeswoman for Transport for London. Des Pallieres had a total of 65 congestion-charge fines and ``lots'' of parking tickets in addition to the unpaid tax, the Evening Standard reported earlier today.

The Maserati has been held in a lot with space for 400 cars in White City, west London, operated by NCP Services, which manages impound lots for the government.

`Among the Wrecks'

``It's very unusual we have a car of this kind of value,'' said Tim Cowen, a spokesman for NCP Services. ``It's out there in the open among the wrecks. They're death traps basically that we want to get off the road.''

Typically, owners have up to two weeks to claim their car after it has been towed, said Cowen. Unclaimed cars are scrapped or sold at auction. Because this car was so valuable, the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency had trouble finding dealers who could handle the sale, Cowen said.

The Cambiocorsa's 4.2-liter engine gives it a top speed of 177 miles an hour (285 kilometers an hour) and power to move from zero to 62 miles an hour in 4.9 seconds, according to the carmaker's Web site.

Regarding his investment strategy, Des Pallieres said he's planning to take advantage of the decline in so-called collateralized debt obligations. He has received regulatory approval for the fund, which will start later this year with ``a few hundred million euros.''

Defaults on U.S. housing loans to subprime borrowers, those with patchy credit histories, have reached a 10-year high, driving down the value of bonds backed by mortgages.

`Perfect Market'

Many bond investments have been unfairly associated with subprime investments in the U.S., Des Pallieres said. Among his first purchases will be collateralized debt obligations not linked to subprime mortgages.

``The first shot brought all things down without discrimination,'' he said. ``It's a forced sellers' market and that's a perfect market to buy into. But for subprime investments, it will get worse before it gets better.''

Two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds collapsed earlier this year because of bad subprime mortgage bets. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world's most profitable securities firm and second- largest hedge fund manager, was forced to put $2 billion of its own money into one of its funds and waive some fees after it lost 28 percent this month.

Yield premiums on bonds backed by corporate loans and subprime mortgages widened last week as lenders face a cash crunch, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said.

The average spread on so-called mezzanine structured finance collateralized debt obligations rated AAA widened 0.5 percentage point to 2.5 percentage points over the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, New York-based JPMorgan analysts led by Christopher Flanagan said in an Aug. 17 report. The securities are backed mainly by subprime mortgages.

To contact the reporter for this story: David Clarke in Edinburgh at dclarke3@bloomberg.net .