Fortress scraps fund plans

Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009
Author: James Mackintosh, FT.com

Fortress Investment Group has scrapped plans for a new hedge fund to invest in the Middle East and Africa, confirming the dire state of the market for new funds.

Fortress, which has suspended its $7bn Drawbridge fund, down by 22.1 per cent last year, had been expected by investors to raise $400m-$500m for the new fund, according to investors and industry magazine HFMWeek.

Philippe Peress, a portfolio manager at Drawbridge who had been due to run the new fund, left Fortress last year.

Fortress has been among the hardest-hit in a wave of investor panic about the industry, with withdrawal requests for its main hedge fund reaching $3.51bn late last year, prompting it to suspend the fund.