New Hedge Fund Gets Seed Money From Citi, Blackstone |
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Date: Friday, February 27, 2009
Author: Dow Jones Newswire
A pair of former Citigroup Inc. (C) executives who are
starting a $200 million hedge fund are getting most of their initial funding
from Citi and Blackstone Group LP (BX), one of its founders said Thursday.
Jeff Jacob, who along with John Humphrey recently founded New York-based
Archview Investment, said their Archview Credit Opportunities Fund will focus on
corporate credit and distressed corporate assets.
He didn't say specifically how much Blackstone, the world's largest private
equity firm, or Citigroup, were investing. He also didn't indicate what other
investors may be involved.
"Basically, we took our group from Citigroup to start this ... it's not so
much a start-up as a spin-off," Jacob said, adding about 10 people from
Citigroup are part of Archview.
Their foray into hedge funds comes amid serious problems in the industry,
which has shrunk in size to about $1.2 trillion from a record $1.9 trillion in
early 2008. The losses by hedge funds are partly due to the sharp declines in
equity markets, but also due to a surge in redemption requests by investors who
need cash.
-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 201 938-2245; dan.molinski@dowjones.com