Former Atticus manager to open new firm |
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Author: Reuters
Dilan Siritunga, a
longtime executive at the hedge fund firm Atticus Capital LP, is
planning to open his own firm, according to a person familiar with his
plans. Siritunga will become the latest in a
string of fund managers to leave Atticus, one of the hedge fund
industry's biggest and best-known activist investors until its founder
liquidated two portfolios last year. Siritunga's
new firm does not yet have a name but his plans are already generating
buzz in the tight-knit investment community, where pension funds and
endowments are ready to put more money to work in the $1.5 trillion (1
trillion pound) industry, investors and industry analysts said. The fund manager is credited with having
helped Atticus founder Timothy Barakett grow the firm into one of the
industry's biggest players. Atticus
took large bets on companies and invested nearly $20 billion at its
peak in 2007. Because of his strong
track record and long stay at Atticus, investors and analysts said they
expect Siritunga to be able to raise money relatively quickly, even
though it has become more difficult to launch new funds after the
financial crisis. Siritunga did not
return a call seeking comment. Barakett
is one of the first investors in his long-time lieutenant's new
venture, said the person who was not allowed to speak about firm
publicly because the fund is private. Siritunga
and Barakett both earned business degrees at Harvard and the two men
devoted most of their professional lives to growing Atticus into a
powerhouse. The flagship Atticus Global fund gained 19 percent annually
while the broader stock index climbed 4 percent since its inception in
1996. Indeed, Siritunga still works
in the mid-town Manhattan office building where Atticus had its
headquarters. In August, Barakett
surprised some investors when he closed his $3.5 billion flagship fund
and a smaller portfolio with $600 million in order to spend more time
with his family. "I have been
blessed with great investors, partners, employees, and a lot of good
luck," Barakett told investors in his August letter. Now he is sending some of his personal
fortune to be invested by some of those former colleagues. In addition to writing a check to
Siritunga, Barakett was one of the first investors in Atwater Capital,
an Atticus spinoff founded by Kris Green and Lee Pollock this year,
people familiar with that fund said. Former
Atticus employees Ed Bosek and Noam Ohana also spun out of the firm and
founded Beacon Light Capital, which is investing in global equities. Elsewhere, Farallon Capital Management LLC
told its investors this week that four partners -- William Duhamel,
Jason Moment, Ashish Pant and Rich Voon -- are setting up their own
firm. The four concentrated on
picking undervalued stocks at Farallon, the San Francisco-based fund
firm that manages roughly $21 billion and boasts a 35 percent trailing
12 month return through the end of February, a person familiar with the
returns and departures said. The
firm's assets have fallen 41 percent from its peak before the financial
crisis began.