Malbec Hires Ex-Amaranth Strategists |
Date: Thursday, March 6, 2008
Author: Maggie Shea, Financial Correspondent, Hedgeworld.com
NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)—Among the investment teams recruited by Malbec Partners Inc. for the initial strategies of its Alternative Investment Platform, which includes emerging markets and quantitative fixed income, are two ex-Amaranth employees, according to a statement released Wednesday [March 5]. Bill Geisler, former head of defunct hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC's emerging markets strategy, will co-head Malbec's emerging markets strategy team as a portfolio manager. Joining him to help lead the team as a senior research strategist is Lars Pederson, a former senior research analyst and strategist for Amaranth's emerging markets strategy. Before Mr. Geisler ran emerging markets strategy at Amaranth, he was managing director and global head of Lehman Brothers' emerging markets fixed-income business. Mr. Pederson was a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund in its International Capital Markets group before joining Amaranth as a strategist. Heading up Malbec's fixed-income group, called the Quantitative Multi-Strategy team, will be three portfolio managers: Ryan Sheftel, a former director in global rates at Citadel Investment Group; David Horowitz, who formerly was managing director, portfolio manager and head of credit research at Morgan Stanley Investment Management; and Ian McDonald, who previously was a managing director and head of macro strategies at Goldman Sachs & Co. The two Malbec strategy teams will report to Jeffrey Trongone, president and chief executive of Malbec Partners. The firm plans to open an affiliated entity in London and offer more strategies. Institutional money manager Fischer Francis Trees & Watts established Malbec Partners last fall. FFTW, a wholly owned, independently operated subsidiary of BNP Paribas, specializes in single and multi-currency fixed-income investment portfolios. In the months following the September 2006 blowup of Amaranth, many of the firm's alumni found jobs elsewhere, including at Moore Capital Management, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Highbridge Capital Management LLC and The Carlyle Group. More recently, former Amaranth Chief Operating Officer Charles Winkler joined Hudson Bay Capital Management LP in January Previous HedgeWorld Story. Malbec Partners was launched on Nov. 5, 2007.