See GRAPEVINE on Back Page

Jeremy Klaperman this month joined HBK Capital’s London office as a portfolio manager focused on European equi-ties. He most recently worked at Karsch Capital, a New York stock-trading firm that he left in May. HBK, a Dallas-based multi-strategy fund manager, has $13 billion of gross hedge fund assets.

Eric Storch and Dalia Cohen have joined the marketing team at Oak Hill Advisors. Both are based in the New York head-quarters of the $13 billion debt-fund manager. Storch started work last week as a managing director, with responsibil-ities that include business development, client coverage and marketing activities. He was previously with Blackstone’s GSO Capital unit in the customized credit-strategies group. Cohen joined Oak Hill on Aug. 1 as a managing director

THE GRAPEVINE

Investcorp Ramps Up Fund-Seeding BusinessInvestcorp wants to resume its role as a major player in the hedge fund-seeding arena.From 2005 to 2008, the alternative-investment giant deployed about $450 mil-

lion of seed capital to a variety of hedge fund startups, but has done only a few deals since the financial crisis. To jumpstart its seeding business, the firm recently rehired managing director David Cranston to handle marketing. And for the first time, Investcorp plans to recruit other institutional players to co-invest in its deals.

Already on tap is a seed investment the company expects to finalize in November or December. Investcorp typically invests $50 million to $100 million in each deal, in exchange for a cut of the manager’s revenue.

Until now, its seeding business has been funded entirely by proprietary capital. Indeed, it is one of the few institutional-scale hedge fund backers that doesn’t operate

See INVESTCORP on Page 10

Mariner Preps Infrastructure-Finance VehicleMariner Investment is marketing a fund that would invest in infrastructure loans,

mainly by selling first-loss swaps to project-finance banks.The vehicle, International Infrastructure Finance Company Fund, has an equity

goal of $200 million to $400 million. Mariner, a fixed-income fund operator with some $5 billion of regulatory assets, is hoping to complete an initial round of fund raising and begin investing by yearend.

“It’s generating a lot of interest from big investors,” one source said of the market-ing effort.

The fund is being set up based on two “major investment themes,” according to a recent investor note from Mariner founder William Michaelcheck. The first is a perceived “urgent need” for infrastructure financing, estimated at $71 trillion glob-ally through 2030. The other is the impact of new risk-based capital requirements that are making it increasingly costly for banks to carry large loans on their books.

The Mariner fund is designed to help project-finance banks, particularly inSee MARINER on Page 6

Ex-Highbridge Trio Shutting Kingsbrook FundThree former Highbridge Capital traders are pulling the plug on their $100 mil-

lion Kingsbrook Partners hedge fund operation.Ari Storch, Adam Chill and Scott Wallace, who founded New York-based Kings-

brook in 2009, told investors in a Sept. 11 letter that they plan to return all outside capital by yearend — at which point they’ll focus on managing their own money.

From its inception through the end of August, the Kingsbrook Opportunities fund posted a cumulative return of 31.1%, though it was down 1% for the first eight months of this year. The vehicle invests in small- and micro-cap companies, mainly through preferred shares, convertible bonds and private investments in public equi-ties.

In their letter to investors, Storch, Chill and Wallace cited a dearth of attrac-tive investment opportunities. “Our belief is predicated on a number of factors that have led to a structural shift in the markets in which we invest,” they wrote. “Put

See TRIO on Page 2

2 Vora Soars on Distressed-Debt Plays

2 Hilltop Park Opens Long-Bias Fund

3 Firm Backing US Managers of UCITS

3 Basix Founder Throws in the Towel

3 Family Office Advisor Ups Exposure

5 Manager Focusing on Internet Plays

6 MatlinPatterson Fund Bounces Back

6 Profitable Debut for Event-Driven Fund

7 Shop Adds Managed-Account Program

5 INFLOWS/OUTFLOWS BY STRATEGY

11 LATEST LAUNCHES

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

Vora Soars on Distressed-Debt PlaysIt’s shaping up to be a banner year for HG Vora Capital.The event-driven manager’s HG Vora Special Opportunities

Fund was up 30.4% for the first eight months of the year — its best showing since its April 2009 inception. By comparison, the HFRX Event Driven Multi-Strategy Index was up just 2.8% for the same period, while the S&P 500 Index had gained 13.5%.

The vehicle, led by portfolio manager Parag Vora, is now well above its high-water mark following a 2.5% loss last year. It gained 16.1% in 2010 and 25.8% for the last nine months of 2009 — for an average annual return of 20.1% through Aug. 31.

The fund mainly invests in distressed debt tied to compa-nies in the real estate, lodging, gambling and retail sectors. For example, it had been the largest investor in Great Wolf Resorts before buyout shop Apollo Global Management took the com-pany private in May. Great Wolf was Vora’s most profitable investment this year, accounting for roughly 20% of the fund’s profits.

Parag Vora, who previously worked at Silver Point Capital and Goldman Sachs, launched his fund with startup capital from two major players in the real estate sector: investment firm Highgate Holdings of Dallas and Taubman Asset Group of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a family office connected to the Taub-man mall empire. Former Silver Point executive Gary Moross joined Vora as a partner in 2010 and now oversees key invest-

ment functions such as idea generation, research and portfolio monitoring.

In addition to its recent performance, Vora’s marketing materials highlight a highly liquid portfolio that supports monthly redemptions and a hedging strategy that provides sig-nificant downside protection. To wit: While the S&P 500 has lost a total of 47.3% during the 13 down months since Vora’s inception, the fund’s losses totaled just 7.9% for those months.

The firm’s assets, which totaled $120 million at the start of the year, have shot up to $210 million. Vora has a staff of nine, including five investment professionals.

Hilltop Park Opens Long-Bias FundEquity manager Stanley Shopkorn has begun marketing a

long-biased vehicle that has generated a 20% average annual return over nearly four years.

Shopkorn’s firm, Hilltop Park Associates, has been manag-ing the Hilltop Long Opportunity Fund since October 2008 on behalf of an undisclosed family office. As of this month, the vehicle is open to other investors.

Shopkorn, a former star portfolio manager at Moore Capital, founded Hilltop Park in 2008 with chief operating officer Jason Siegale. The firm’s main vehicle, Hilltop Park Fund, has about $345 million of regulatory assets, including leverage.

The long-biased fund pursues an opportunistic equity strategy that doesn’t short stocks but employs a hedging “overlay” to mitigate downside risk. The investment process — including both fundamental and technical screens — is designed to exploit structural changes in the market that have accompanied the emergence of exchange-traded funds, high-frequency trading and so-called dark pools, as well as lower brokerage fees.

Hilltop conceived of the strategy to accommodate an inves-tor who wanted access to the firm’s best ideas. Shopkorn never intended to market the vehicle more broadly. But nearly four years in, it has crushed the HFRI Equity Hedge (Total) Index, which has gained an average of 3.4% a year over the same period.

Because the vehicle has a long bias, Hilltop Park is charging a 1% management fee and 10% performance fee, instead of the 2-and-20 fee structure more typical of hedge funds.

Shopkorn left Moore in 2002, then ran his own money for six years before co-founding Hilltop Park.

Trio ... From Page 1

simply, we do not believe that the right risk/reward investment opportunities currently exist that will enable us to generate risk-adjusted returns . . . consistent with our objectives.”

The partners ran a similar strategy at Highbridge, where they started in 2001. At the time of their departure in early 2009, Storch was a senior portfolio manager in charge of the structured-investments group.

Highbridge, the hedge fund-management arm of J.P. Mor-gan, has about $17 billion of gross assets under management.

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Firm Backing US Managers of UCITSA U.K. advisory shop has begun offering seed capital and

logistical support to U.S. fund operators that want to launch so-called UCITS vehicles.

Rasini Fairway Capital of London recently finalized the terms of its debut seed deal, raising $15 million for a UCITS fund that Sierra Global Management of New York plans to start trading in the fourth quarter. The new vehicle would mirror the strategy of Sierra Europe Offshore Fund, a European-equity offering that manages about $240 million.

UCITS — or Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferrable Securities — is a tightly regulated European fund structure that is proving popular with risk-averse investors in the wake of the financial crisis. A small but growing number of U.S. fund operators have launched UCITS in an effort to expand their investor ranks. But many others have been deterred by the legal, logistical and marketing hurdles involved with managing a European-domiciled vehicle.

That’s where Rasini’s new seeding business comes in. Ear-lier this year, the firm set up a Luxembourg-based unit dubbed RF Capital to advise managers in the States on all aspects of launching a UCITS fund, including compliance and marketing. Rasini is raising the seed capital from its existing client base of European private banks. The firm’s main business is creating customized funds of funds for those clients, advising on a total of about $500 million of investments.

“Our objective is to seed more funds in different strategies and establish a strong UCITS offering, given our knowledge of the hedge fund universe and understanding of investor demands in Europe,” said Karim Leguel, Rasini’s chief invest-ment officer.

With its first deal in the bag, RF Capital is now pitching its business model to other U.S. managers, with the aim of mak-ing 3-5 more seed investments over the next couple of years. In exchange for its backing, Rasini will take a cut of the fee rev-enue managers earn from their UCITS offerings.

Basix Founder Throws in the TowelAfter a decade of mostly positive returns, Basix Capital is

calling it quits.The San Francisco firm, led by Matthew Spotswood, notified

investors last week it was liquidating its flagship Basix Capital Fund and would return their capital by the end of the month. It had about $75 million under management as of May 31.

The long/short equity manager posted gains for nine straight years through 2010, including a 3% return in 2008 — when the HFRI Equity Hedge (Total) Index fell nearly

27%. The fund recorded its first annual loss in 2011, when it declined 4.5%, versus an 8.4% drop for the HFRI index. As for this year, it was roughly flat at the time Spotswood decided to pull the plug.

What happened? Spotswood is a fundamental stock picker — an approach that’s suffered at a time when the market is increasingly influenced by macroeconomic fac-tors such as Europe’s debt crisis and the responses of central bankers.

“Our fundamentally based strategy has become ineffective,” Spotswood wrote in an investor note distributed Sept. 6.

Another factor: The Basix fund had no gate provisions, meaning limited partners essentially were free to with-draw at will. Despite the fund’s positive performance in 2008, for instance, many investors submitted redemp-tion requests, if for no other reason than other funds had blocked the exits. The firm’s assets, which had peaked at about $170 million before the financial crisis, fell to just $68 million.

A combination of investment gains and fresh capital boosted assets to $110 million as of August 2011, but then the market went into a tailspin thanks largely to S&P’s downgrade of U.S. debt. Once again, investors took advantage of the fund’s liberal liquidity terms to pull money out of the market.

Before launching in 2001, Spotswood spent seven years at San Francisco-based EGM Capital as an analyst and portfolio manager. He hasn’t decided on his next move yet, but wants to remain in the industry.

Family Office Advisor Ups ExposureAn advisor that oversees $2.2 billion of investments for fam-

ily offices and foundations plans to significantly increase its hedge fund portfolio.

Legacy Trust Co. currently invests about $66 million, or 3% of its overall assets, with five managers, including Graham Capi-tal, Moore Capital and Seminole Capital. But the Houston opera-tion now wants to boost the allocation to 10%, or about $220 million.

The money would come from Legacy’s long-only portfolio, which represents about 35% of overall assets. Over the next year or so, it intends to liquidate a chunk of its long-only invest-ments and reallocate the capital to hedge funds.

In the meantime, Legacy plans to review its existing hedge fund investments with an eye toward marginally increasing its commitments to each manager. Legacy invests only in sin-gle-manager funds, rather than funds of funds, with a focus on long/short equity, global-macro and managed-futures vehicles.

The investment team is led by Steve Sprengnether, who joined Legacy in 2005 after stints at Goldman Sachs and Mor-gan Stanley.

Legacy was founded in 1984 to manage money for a wealthy Texas family, and later expanded into a full-service trust com-pany. It also has an office in Wilmington, Del.

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 3

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Launches.”

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 4

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Manager Focusing on Internet PlaysA technology specialist is raising money for a niche vehi-

cle that would invest in companies that stand to profit from advances in Internet technology.

Tom Wyman, who spent years focusing on Internet technol-

ogy as an analyst at J.P. Morgan and portfolio manager at several West Coast hedge funds, formed Internet Capital of San Francisco earlier this year with hopes of launching his debut fund in about two months. He currently is talking to prospective backers about a possible seed deal and plans to pitch his Global Internet Fund at the HedgeWorld New York 2012 conference on Sept. 19.

While many technology funds target Internet stocks, Wyman claims his long/short vehicle would be the first hedge fund dedicated to Internet-related investments. Specifically, the vehicle would trade both public and private shares of companies poised to benefit from the expansion of the Internet from the realm of personal computers to mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets and other applica-tions. Wyman envisions a concentrated portfolio of 10-15 private companies and 20 or so publicly traded companies.

“We believe there is significant investor appetite for Internet exposure, yet there are no Internet hedge funds and only two actively managed Internet mutual funds in existence today,” according to the fund’s marketing materials. “The two mutual funds invest only in public companies, are long-only and each have less than $125 million in assets.”

Wyman most recently did a brief stint as managing director in the private-shares group at Wedbush Securities. Before that, he worked as an Internet-technology portfolio manager at hedge fund opera-tors Husic Capital, San Francisco Capital and Lamoreaux Capital, all based in the San Francisco Bay area. Earlier in his career, he worked at J.P. Morgan, as well as Hambrecht & Quist and Morgan Stanley.

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 5

Inflows/Outflows by Strategy Last 12 MonthsHedge funds ($Mil.)Asia/Pacific long/short equity $57.4Bear market equity 6.9China long/short equity -21.9Convertible arbitrage -385.1Currency -850.8Debt arbitrage 863.7Distressed securities -152.5Diversified arbitrage 3,193.8Emerging markets long/short equity -560.3Emerging markets long-only equity 25.0Equity market neutral -566.3Europe long/short equity -2,162.2Event driven -3,339.4Global long/short equity -2,242.9Global macro -4,573.8Long/short debt 903.3Long-only debt -223.9Long-only equity -217.4Long-only other -235.4Merger arbitrage -29.1Multistrategy 3,564.4Systematic futures 432.5U.S. long/short equity -2,844.5U.S. small cap long/short equity -139.4Volatility 252.9TOTAL -9,244.8

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Net Flows for Industry ($Bil.)

Source: Morningstar Direct Fund Flows

2012 2011

MatlinPatterson Fund Bounces BackA mortgage-bond hedge fund that suffered a double-digit

loss in 2011 has come back strong this year.The vehicle, MP Securitized Credit Fund, was up 11.3%

as of July 31 following seven straight months of gains. That’s quite a turnaround from an 11.9% loss last year. The results first were reported by sister publication Asset-Backed Alert.

The vehicle, originally called FrontPoint Strategic Credit Fund, was launched in 2008 under the banner of FrontPoint Partners, a former Morgan Stanley unit that collapsed last year after one of its portfolio managers, Chip Skowron, was charged with insider trading. On Oct. 1, the fund’s seven-person man-agement team jumped to MatlinPatterson, which rebranded the vehicle.

The fund invests in both residential and commercial mort-gage bonds. In a recent letter to investors, portfolio managers Marc Rosenthal and Noelle Savarese said their residential-loan book has been on a tear thanks to increasing investor confi-dence that the U.S. housing market is poised for a rebound. The portfolio, which gained 0.9% in July, encompasses a mix of securities backed by prime, alternative-A and subprime cred-its. The fund’s commercial-MBS book performed even better in July, posting a 1.2% gain.

Prior to the management change, the fund had seen its assets shrink dramatically as investors reacted to the news of Skow-ron’s arrest in April 2011. Skowron, who focused on healthcare stocks, wasn’t involved with the mortgage-bond vehicle. But investors withdrew their money en masse from FrontPoint’s multi-strategy fund, which accounted for much of the capital in the mortgage-backed securities pool. In November, Skowron was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

The mortgage-bond fund’s assets peaked in 2010 at $600 million. It currently has about $140 million under management.

Profitable Debut for Event-Driven FundFormer Highbridge Capital portfolio manager Jason Esralew

is off to a strong start in his new home at Ionic Capital.Since launching Ionic Event Driven Master Fund on Feb. 1,

Esralew’s team has delivered a 14%-plus return through Aug.

31 — far surpassing the 1.4% gain for the HFRX Event Driven Index during the same period. The S&P 500 Index rose 8.6% in the February-August stretch.

The fund invests in both the debt and equity of companies, mostly in North America. As of Aug. 31, the portfolio held 33 positions.

Ionic hasn’t aggressively marketed the fund until now — which explains its modest $21 million of assets under manage-ment. That could change as investors catch wind of the vehicle’s early returns, including a hefty one-month gain of 5.9% in August.

The firm is offering discounted fees on the first $150 mil-lion of capital: 1.25% of assets and 15% of gains, compared to the industry-standard 2-and-20 fee structure that will apply to later investors.

Esralew and his team ran more than $1 billion of event-driven investments at Highbridge before leaving in early 2011. Senior analysts Chris Chan, David Key, Jason Miller and Marcus Weiss followed Esralew to Ionic.

The New York firm, which has $1.3 billion of net assets, was founded in 2006 by former Highbridge executives Bart Baum, Adam Radosti and Daniel Stone.

Mariner ... From Page 1

Europe, manage their regulatory-capital burdens. First-loss swaps allow a lender to transfer some of the risk of a loan port-folio to a counterparty, and thus reduce the amount of capi-tal it needs to hold against that position. “Tightening Basel 3 standards have caused a dramatic shortage in regulatory capi-tal likely to persist over the next several years,” Michaelcheck noted.

In addition to selling credit protection, the fund will look at buying loan portfolios from project-finance banks. An execu-tive in the infrastructure-finance sector said Mariner is among a number of new players looking to “replace or facilitate bank lending to infrastructure projects.”

The fund’s fee and liquidity terms are unknown, but it pre-sumably will be structured more like a private equity fund than a hedge fund.

Overseeing the effort is Andrew Hohns, who joined Mari-ner in March from Philadelphia-based Institutional Financial Markets, formerly known as Cohen & Co. There, he was a managing director whose responsibilities included structur-ing securitized products, including collateralized debt obli-gations. At Mariner, Hohns is chief executive of a new unit called Mariner Infrastructure Investment. His team is based in a new Mariner outpost in Philadelphia. The parent firm, a unit of Tokyo-based Orix Corp., is headquartered in Harrison, N.Y.

Working with Hohns is executive director Aaron Barnes, who previously was a vice president of project finance at renewable-energy company Tangent Energy. Three more executives are set to join the team after the fund holds an initial equity close. They include Robert Gurman, who runs a firm called Gurman Capital that advises investors in power-generation financing deals.

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 6

You can keep tabs on Wall Streeters who are setting out on their own by monitoring “Latest Launches,” which you can find in The Marketplace section of HFAlert.com. The listing is chock full of details about recent launches of hedge funds and funds of funds, as well as information on vehicles established in the last several years.

Track Past and PresentFund Start-Ups

Shop Adds Managed-Account ProgramFund-of-funds manager Old Greenwich Capital has launched

a managed-account platform that promises investors a high degree of transparency and control.

The New York firm started investing via the new platform in July, using $125 million of partner and client capital, and has so far generated a 7% return. It deploys capital through separate accounts with managers that have between $10 million and $100 million under management. The platform offers investors daily liquidity and the ability to view details of their accounts on a real-time basis.

The new program will run alongside Old Greenwich’s $200 million core fund, which is largely backed by family offices and wealthy individuals. The fund of funds is up 4.5% through August of this year, compared to a 3.49% gain for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index, and has produced an annual-

ized return of 8.25% since inception. The firm has steered client capital into vehicles run by Elliott Management, Litespeed Man-agement, Mason Capital, Sound Point Capital and Third Point, among others.

Old Greenwich was founded in 2005 by Jeffrey Arsenault, previously a partner at Paradigm Capital. He set up a New York outpost for the Canadian investment boutique and was respon-sible for Paradigm’s U.S. broker-dealer operation. Before that, he spent 13 years in institutional sales at CIBC World Markets, Gordon Capital and Merrill Lynch.

Arsenault formed the managed-account platform in part-nership with software firm Liquid Holdings. The New York out-fit produced a customizable risk-analysis and reporting system dubbed Green Mountain Analytics, which enables Old Green-wich clients to run risk analytics on individual managers and aggregated portfolios.

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 7

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CALENDAR Main Events Dates Event Location Sponsor Information

Oct. 10-12 Fund Forum USA 2012 Boston ICBI www.informaglobalevents.com

Oct. 18-19 Outlook 2012 New York MFA www.managedfunds.org

Nov. 1-2 Absolute Return Symposium 2012 New York Hedge Fund Intel. www.hedgefundintelligence.com

Jan. 21-24, 2013 GAIM USA 2013 Boca Raton, Fla. IIR www.iirusa.com

Jan. 28-30 Network 2013 Miami MFA www.managedfunds.org

Jan.30-Feb. 1 Miami 2013 Summit Miami AlphaMetrix www.alphametrix.com

Events in US Dates Event Location Sponsor Information Sept. 18 Dodd Frank Title VII Changes New York Knowledge Xchange www.fsokx.com

Sept. 18-19 Hedge Fund General Counsel Summit New York ALM www.cvent.com

Sept. 19 HedgeWorld New York 2012 New York HedgeWorld www.hedgeworld.com

Sept. 19 Regulation of Investment Advisors-Ongoing Debate New York CMS www.cmconsortium.com

Sept. 19-21 Insurance Linked Securities Summit New York IQPC www.iqpc.com

Sept 19-22 Market Structure Conference Washington STA www.securitytraders.org

Sept. 20 Hedge Fund Summit New York FINalternatives www.finalalternatives.com

Sept. 20-21 Private Equity Analyst Conference New York Dow Jones peaconference.dowjones.com

Sept. 21 Meet the Managers Forum New York Infovest21 www.infovest21.com

Sept. 24 Introduction to Commodities Market New York FMW www.fmwonline.com

Sept. 24-25 India Investment Forum New York Institutional Investor www.iiforums.com

Sept. 25 Speed Traders Workshop 2012 New York Golden Networking thespeedtradersworkshop.com

Sept. 27 Complex Products Forum New York SIFMA www.sifma.org

Sept. 27 Introduction to Hedge Funds New York FMW www.fmwonline.com

Sept. 28 Morning Investor Seminar New York Infovest 21 www.infovest21.com

Oct. 1 Municipal Bond Summit New York SIFMA www.sifma.org

Oct. 1-2 Value Investing Congress New York Schwartz Tilson www.valueinvestingcongress.com

Oct. 1-2 Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence Summit New York FRA www.frallc.com

Oct. 1-2 BHA Select Hedge Funds: 2012 Boston Brighton House www.brightonhouseassociates.com

Oct. 1-3 Sub-Advised Funds Forum Philadelphia FRA www.frallc.com

Oct. 2 Aviation Finance Summit 2012 New York Winston Baker www.winstonbaker.com

Oct. 2 Private Equity Roundtable Forum New York Roundtable Forum www.roundtableforum.com

Oct. 3 Think Tank East Coast 2012 New York IR Magazine www.insideinvestorrelations.com

Events Outside US Dates Event Location Sponsor Information Sept. 18 Australian Hedge Fund Forum 2012 Sydney AIMA www.aima-australia-forum.com.au

Sept. 18-20 Fund Manager Selection Asia 2012 Hong Kong IIR www.iiribcfinance.com

Sept. 19 Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam Golden Networking thespeedtradersworkshop.com

Sept. 19-20 Trading Architecture Europe London WBR www.wbresearch.com

Sept. 19-21 European Investment Roundtable Rome Institutional Investor www.iiforums.com

Sept. 24-27 Super Return Asia 2012 Hong Kong ICBI www.superreturnasia.com

Sept. 25 Canton of Schwyz Relocation Conference Pfaeffikon, Switzerland IIR www.iiribcfinance.com

Sept. 25-26 UCITS V in London 2012 London IBC www.iiribcfinance.com

Sept. 25-26 Fund Manager Selection Zurich Zurich IIR www.informaglobalevents.com

Sept. 25-27 TradeTechFX London WBR www.wbresearch.com

Sept. 27-28 Institutional Investor Fund Workshop West Sussex, U.K. Institutional Investor www.iiforums.com

Oct. 1-3 European Alternative & Institutional Investing Summit Monte Carlo, Monaco Opal www.opalgroup.net

To view the complete conference calendar, visit The Marketplace section of HFAlert.com

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Investcorp ... From Page 1

via a commingled fund. While it has no plans to start a seeding fund, Investcorp is now looking for partners interested in co-investing on a deal-by-deal basis.

“This is Investcorp seeding 2.0,” a source said.The firm currently backs eight hedge funds with a combined

$1.6 billion under management. Prominent among them are Silverback Asset Management’s flagship fund, which launched in 2006 and now has $1.2 billion, and structured-product inves-tor Prosiris Capital, which launched in July 2011 and reached $300 million on Aug. 1. Prosiris is one of only a handful of seed deals Investcorp has completed since the financial crisis.

Cranston and a handful of other Investcorp executives launched the seeding business in 2005. He left in 2010, then joined North Creek Advisors of Stamford, Conn., which advises hedge fund startups and helps them raise capital. He returned to Investcorp at the end of July. Earlier in his career, Cranston ran derivatives-sales desks at Barclays, J.P. Morgan and Lehman Brothers.

Investcorp’s seeding arm is headed by Nick Vamvakas. The firm’s New York hedge fund group manages about $4.3 billion of seed investments, funds of funds and customized accounts, much of it on behalf of investors in the Middle East. Invest-corp’s parent, Investcorp Bank, is based in Bahrain.

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 10

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Fund Portfolio managers, Management company Strategy Service providers Launch

Equity at Launch

(Mil.)

Global Internet Fund Domicile: U.S. See Page 5

Tom Wyman Internet Capital, San Francisco 415-613-1454

Long/short: equity Prime broker: J.P. Morgan Law firm: Cole-Frieman Mallon Auditor: Spicer Jefferies Administrator: Conifer Securities

Nov.

Hilltop Long Opportunity Fund Domicile: U.S. See Page 2

Stanley Shopkorn Hilltop Park Associates, New York 212-644-4030

Long-bias: equity (opened to new investors this month)

Prime brokers: Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse Law firm: Seward & Kissel Auditor: Rothstein Kass Administrator: Goldman Sachs

2008

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THE GRAPEVINE... From Page 1

September 12, 2012 Hedge Fund ALERT 12

and head of investor relations. She was previously head of marketing and client coverage at New York-based JLL Partners.

Fund administrator Butterfield Fulcrum added marketer Richard Lamendola to its New York staff this week. Lamendola came from financial-services company Ameriprise. Butterfield’s New York office also hired A.R. Caputo as a sales professional on Sept. 4. Caputo replaced Stephanie Doane, who left the firm ear-lier this month. Caputo was formerly a director at hedge fund services firm S3 Partners, also in New York. Bermuda-based Butterfield still has an additional sales slot to fill in New York, as well as one in London.

Former Highside Capital senior ana-lyst Alex Nettune is setting up a fund-management firm. He had been with Highside since it launched in 2003, and left the $1.2 billion firm on Aug. 1. Dallas-based Highside, an equity inves-

tor, is led by Lee Hobson, who previ-ously worked with Nettune at Maverick Capital.

Mary McDonnell and UnBo “Bob” Chung filled new positions at Chicago consult-ing firm Simon Compliance this month. Both hold the title of senior consultant. McDonnell is working with Simon’s futures-trading clients. She most recently ran her own consulting firm, and before that spent 30 years work-ing in the field of electronic trading, including a term as chief executive of Chicago-based Geneva Trading. Chung is working with brokerage firms, as well as investment advisors and alternative-investment firms. He was previously an enforcement lawyer at Finra.

Trader James Levey joined $1.3 billion hedge fund firm Basswood Capital sev-eral weeks ago. He previously worked at Paris-based Olympia Capital, which merged with Kenmar Group in April to create Kenmar Olympia, a $3.3 billion operator of funds of hedge funds.

Providence Equity Capital has hired a chief compliance officer. Alexander

McMillan joined the New York credit specialist in recent weeks from Loeb Capital, where he was general counsel. McMillan reports to Roman Bejger, chief compliance officer of the firm’s parent — private equity shop Provi-dence Equity Partners. The hedge fund unit had $2.9 billion of regulatory assets as of June 30.

By October, Corbin Capital will receive the last installment of a $350 million investment mandate from Nova Scotia Health Employees. The New York-based fund-of-funds manager, which runs $3 billion, won the assignment from the Bedford, Canada, pension plan early in the second quarter.

Corgentum Consulting, which reviews the operations side of hedge funds, opened an office in San Francisco last week. The firm, based in Jersey City, N.J., expects to expand its client base by capturing more business from invest-ment consultants, endowments, family offices and funds of funds. Corgentum also hopes to conduct more due-dili-gence reviews of private equity and real estate funds.

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