An alumnus of Ricky Sandler’s New York–based hedge fund firm, Eminence Capital, has raised $108 million for a new hedge fund.
Seth Rosen launched New York–based Nitorum Fund, a long-short equity fund, on January 1. Altogether, his firm, Nitorum Capital, has raised more than $150 million and employs nine professionals. A representative from the firm declined to comment.
Among Nitorum’s initial investors is Lone Juniper, a fund of funds managed by Tiger Cub Stephen Mandel Jr.’s Greenwich, Connecticut–based Lone Pine Capital, according to Lone Juniper’s fourth-quarter report, obtained by Alpha.
Nitorum’s competitive advantage is said to be a combination of deep financial analysis and targeted field research with strong short-selling experience and knowledge of accounting. The fund figures to devote 2 percent to 10 percent of assets to each of its long positions. Each short position will typically account for 1 percent to 4 percent of assets. Targeted shorts will typically be companies whose expected profitability or growth is unsustainable and misunderstood. Nitorum will generally run with gross exposure of between 140 percent and 170 percent and net exposure of between 20 percent and 50 percent.
Rosen joined Eminence as a senior analyst when the firm launched in 1999. He became principal and portfolio manager in 2002. Before joining Eminence, Rosen spent eight months at Fusion Capital Management, the hedge fund firm run by Sandler and Cobalt Capital Management’s Wayne Cooperman before they split and formed their own firms. Rosen earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and was elected to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society.
While attending Columbia, Rosen was a consultant for Credit Suisse First Boston. From 1994 to 1997, he was an equity research associate at CSFB in New York and London, covering a variety of industries. Before that, he worked for NatWest Markets.
