TSP

AUNCHES

MACELLUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

STRATEGY Long/short FIRM Macellum Capital Management MANAGER Jonathan Duskin

AGSCAPITAL GROUP
STRATEGYPIPEs/fixedincome/reserve equity financing FIRM AGS Capital Group MANAGER Allen Silberstein

MTTHALER CREDITOPP FUND

STRATEGY Credit FIRM MT Thaler Inv. Management MANAGERS John Vax/ Michael Sonenstiine

MTTHALER SHORT TERM BOND FUND

STRATEGY Ucits III FIRM MT Thaler Inv Management MANAGER Christian Schiweck

LAKEWOOD CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

STRATEGYLong/short FIRM Lakewood Capital Management MANAGER Anthony Bozza

LAUNCH

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Prentice founder returns with Macellum launch

Jonathan Duskin enters long/short space with maiden launch
Stanley Ku, former head of Fortress Investment Groups Hong Kong office, plans to start an Asia-focused hedge fund. i- The Minerva Macro Fund. to be 'i:iimanaged by Hong Kong-based Ku,will start investing in early August. It seeks to generate annual returns of 12% to 22% by trading stocks, interest rate, currency and commodity instruments in large and liquid markets. Stephen Satchell, the former Tokyo-based head of Asian proprietary credit trading at Credit Suisse Group, plans to start an Asia-focused credit hedge fund as early as this month. The GCS Asian Opportunity Fund I will offer "small-to-medium-sized" loans, mostly with an equity component, to companies in the region. Winton Capital Management, the UK hedge fund with $12bn in assets, is to start a new fund in Japanand hire staff in Hong Kong. The London-based firrn will advise a new fund sold to Japaneseretail investors through Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (0, which will track the performance of its flagship comrnodity trading adviser fund as it seeks a slice of the nation's $lStrn in personal savings.

Weston seeds Latin American manager

WESTON CAPITAL Management, the Westport, Connecticut-based fund of hedge funds (FoHF) and incubation manager, has seeded Sagil Capital, a long/short Latin American manager in London with $20m through its Weston's Partners II fund. Albert Hallac, chairman, said part of the reason Weston decided to seed Sagil was because of its long-standing relationship with the managers. Adrian Landgrebe, Bradford Jones and Mark Hendricks all worked at Rand Merchant Bank, an investor in Weston's two incubation vehicles. The erosion of hedge fund assets has left established managers in need of funding. "There are some great teams ... better and more teams than ever before, so we've got to change along with what their needs are. Vve have to be more hands-on with them;' said Hallac. As part of its new approach, Weston is working to develop a group of institutional investors that can allocate to any new manager it incubates, as well as in some cases putting an in-house marketer with the incubated fund. Hallac said the next fund Weston will potentially seed will be a shortterm trading strategy. e.margulies@hfmweek.com

JONATHAN DUSKIN, formerly a founding partner of Prentice Capital Management, has set up Macellum Capital Management, and launched his maiden hedge fund, according to an investor document. The offering is a long/short retail and consumer sector-focused strategy. With between 40 and 60 positions, it will invest in small-to-midcap companies. The top ten positions will be between 40-45% of the portfolio while the top 30 positions will be between 75-85%. The fund has a capacity of $2bn of assets under management. Duskin, CEO of Macellum, was at Prentice Capital from 2005 to April 2008. At one point, the long/short hedge fund had approximately $2bn under management. From 2002 to 2005, he was a managing director at SAC Capital Advisors where he

worked directly for Steve Cohen in the Cohen Account. From 1998 to 2002, he was a managing director at Lehman Brothers. For the launch, Duskin has filled the team with industry execs from the retail sector. In addition, David Shapiro, analyst, joined from Scout Capital Management and Stonebrook Fund Management where he held similar positions focusing on the consumer and retail sectors. Jason Pyers, trader, was previously with Copper Arch Capital and Morgan Stanley. Craig Bernstein, also hired as an analyst, was previously an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, where he focused on consumer and retail. The new fund has 2/20 fees and quarterly liquidity. BTIG is the prime broker. There is no investment minimum. e.margulies@hfmweek.com

LAUNCH

Former Visium pro launches three funds

ALLEN SILBERSTEIN, formerly of Visium Asset Management, has launched three funds. After forming AGS Capital Group, he last month debuted a PIPEs fund, along with a fixed-income strategy and reserve equity financing strategy. Silberstein has launched the PIPEs strategy to take advantage of the fact that the valuations of many companies are so low. "By investing through a structured finance strategy, I can purchase stock at a discount to market and receive warrant coverage to further increase returns;' he said.

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The fund will act as a value investor looking for good growth companies with strong management teams in all public sectors. Meanwhile, AGS also launched a fixed income offering due to investor demand and the widening of corporate spreads. Silberstein said he is researching 80-100 credits and building positions in 60 names across 10-12 industries, with a focus on BBB with an average maturity of eight years. The objective is to return 350 basis points over Treasuries. Silberstein also debuted a reserve equity financing strategy in response to the current economic climate where companies are finding it tough to raise capital. This structure provides companies with the ability

to quickly and privately raise capital when needed at a competitive cost by issuing equity to AGS Capital in weekly tranches. Silberstein is partnering with different investment banks to source companies where he can directly invest using this strategy. At Visium, Silberstein structured PIPEs and registered direct investments. At its peak, Visium, a multistrategy hedge fund, had $2.5bn under management. e.margulies@hfmweek.com
23-29 July 2009

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