One year ago
»» The Robin Hood Foundation raised $47.4 million at its star-studded annual gala, which featured performances by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett.
The New York City poverty-fighting organization, which boasts such hedge fund board members as Steve Cohen, Paul Tudor Jones and Dan Och, held this year’s gala last week at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The event, which raised $57 million, included performances by Rihanna and Neil Young. Among the attendees were John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management and Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management.
See more about Robin Hood: Ray Dalio makes $10 million challenge grant • Paul Tudor Jones: “I have had trouble sleeping this year” • Black Eyed Peas rock Central Park for charity • David Tepper joins Robin Hood board, mulls donating majority of fortune
Five years ago
»» Oaktree Capital found plenty of demand for a groundbreaking security sale in which the firm raised $880 million from institutional investors by using the special 144A exemption from the Securities Act of 1933 to sell 15% of itself without having to register the offering. A year later, a professor of law at the University of Arizona composed a whitepaper on the subject, The Birth of Rule 144A Equity Offerings, which “details the burgeoning Rule 144A trading market.”
The Los Angeles firm, which manages $2.35 billion in hedge funds and $77.85 billion overall, listed itself publicly last month on the New York Stock Exchange, but had less success. It raised $380.2 million, reportedly 27% less than it had originally sought.
An Oaktree spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
»» AM Investment Partners co-founders Mark Friedman and Adam Stern celebrated a surge in volatility following a sell-off in Chinese stocks, because their $750 million fund used the options market to profit from the gyrations.
Assets grew to as much as $1 billion in two strategies in 2009 as the pair bet that the transition to President Barack Obama would make for a jumpy market. But amid an unremarkable stretch for arbitrage funds, investors slowly redeemed and AM decided to liquidate its remaining $200 million in December 2011, Friedman told AR. “The world had changed,” he said, referring to automated trading that executes transactions faster than any human could ever calculate.
Friedman is now director of trading and operations at $1 billion Touradji Capital Management. Stern is now managing director of investor relations at Crescent Capital, a $6.3 billion Los Angeles asset manager. He did not respond to a request for comment.
See also: Big Apple convert fund to make long/short push • AM Investment adds portfolio manager • Gotham firm hires quartet
