Wall Street Folly

• Citi’s Creator, Alone With His Regrets
• Buffett Posts Worst Stock Performance Against S&P 500 in Decade
• Mogul finally free of stalker
• Hedge-fund fight imperils Olympic ski venue
• Small fund, big $
• More Brokers Flee Big Firms, Taking Investors With Them Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, Fortress, Hedge funds, Sandy Weill, Warren Buffett

• Bernanke’s Confirmation Support Runs 3-1 in Favor in Senate
• Top hedge funds bet on big rise in yields
• AIG executives’ promises to return bonuses have gone largely unfulfilled
• Geithner-U.S. job growth unlikely before spring
• Stanford again seeks bail, Lawyers say he risks ‘breakdown’
• Moody’s warns of possible sharp sell-off in sovereign debt
• Rajaratnam Lawyer Opposes Request for Summer Trial on Galleon
• Buffett Sells Moody’s Shares for Sixth Time After Profit Drop
• Fortress’s Intrawest Said to Be in Talks on Buyout Loan Payment
• Microsoft Must Alter Word or Stop Sales, Court Says Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Allen Stanford, Ben Bernanke, Bonuses, Fed, Fortress, Galleon, Hedge funds, Interest Rates, jobs, John Paulson, Microsoft, Moody's, Politics, Raj Rajaratnam, Tim Geithner, Trademarks, U.S. Treasury, Warren Buffett

• AIG Permitted by Feinberg to Pay $3.3 Million Grant
• Dubai World Seeks More Time for Debt ‘Standstill’ Agreement
• Collapsed Lehman pays out big bonuses
• Raj Rajaratnam, Chiesi Deny Insider Trading Charges
• Goldman on top in annual tussle for M&A jackpot
• Fortress Sues Law Firm Over Loss Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Bonuses, Fortress, Galleon, Goldman Sachs, Insider Trading, Lawsuit, Marc Dreier, Pay czar, Raj Rajaratnam, Sovereign wealth funds

• Blindsided by Bear, Mr. Miller Sees Bull
• Fortress plans buying spree
• Activist investors eye smaller prey
• Hedge-Fund Manager Investigated for Fraud Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Activists, Bill Miller, criminal investigations, Fortress, frauds, Hedge funds

• Credit Swaps Investigated by U.S. Justice Department
• Congress Mulls Trading Curbs for Its Own
• SEC’s Schapiro Eyes Credit-Rating Firms
• NY Probe May Have Stalled Rattner
• Fortress Clashes on Both Sides of Talks Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bankruptcy, Blackrock, CDS, Fortress, Politics, SEC

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Tags: bonds, Elliott Associates, Fortress, Hedge funds, Highbridge, Marc Dreier, Private equity

CNBC intervewed Bethany McLean, who penned the must read Vanity Fair piece entitled "The hedge-fund time bomb: Over the hedge"

Tags: Citadel, Fortress, SAC Capital

Fortress is no longer completely holding investors hostage in its Drawbridge Global Macro fund, which halted redemptions last month.  After renegotiating with its banks, It's done an about face, and will be returning cash amounting to 73% of their $3.1 billion in redemption request to investors who want out. The rest will dribble out as illiquid investments are sold, presumably over the next 18 months.

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Tags: Credit Crunch, Fortress, Hedge funds

A list of hedge funds and other investors who may have gotten bamboozled in the Mark Dreier swindle is found in a grand jury subpoena attached to a court filing made by Dreier's court-appointed receiver Mark Pomerantz. The subpoena requires that any documents pertaining to those funds be produced, so while it doesn't necessarily mean that they all lost money, they're presumably somehow involved (and we'll guess that most of them probably did lose). There are some heavy hitters on the list, including Paulson & Co, Elliott Associates, Davidson, Kempner, Baupost, Sandell Asset Management, Fortress, Perella Weinberg, GSO (Blackstone's alternative investment arm) and Eton Park.  Also notable on the list is Verition — run by Amaranth's iceberg hitting captain, Nick Maounis. Did he step in it again and strike yet another iceberg?

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Tags: Amaranth, Baupost, Blackstone, Elliott Associates, Eton Park Capital, Fortress, Hedge funds, Legal, Marc Dreier, Perella Weinberg

The list of hedge funds putting up the gates and limiting withdrawals grows longer by the day — over 80 in the past two months — and is a regular who's who.  D.E. Shaw, Farallon and Fortress are among the most recent additions…

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Tags: DE Shaw, Farallon, Fortress, Hedge funds

but they were ultimately aborted.  Bear also talked to Marc Lasry at Avenue Investments about a potential combination….

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Tags: Avenue Investments, Bear Stearns, Credit Crunch, Fortress

Taking advantage of a hot market for just about everything commodities related, Fortress is jumping on the bandwagon and opening its own commodities hedge fund.
   

The Drawbridge Commodities Fund will be
managed by William Callanan, according to the fund’s marketing documents.
Fortress and its employees will invest a “significant” amount of capital in
the fund, the documents said.

“Commodities are getting more and more mainstream,” said Omar Kodmani, a
London-based portfolio manager at Permal Group, which invests $35 billion in
funds. “Investors are still interested in the asset class; we’re not just in a
short-term bull market.”

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Tags: Commodities, Fortress, Hedge funds

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Tags: bonds, Credit Crunch, Distressed, Fortress, Hedge funds

Tax Boost Sought For Buyout Firms Planning IPOs Blackstone, Fortress Tax Structure Targeted by U.S. Senate Blackstone Sets Exec. Retirement Plans

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Tags: Blackstone, Fortress, Hedge funds, Private equity

Another one flees to private equity:  After a 12 year stint at Morgan Stanley, Henry McVey, the firm’s chief U.S. investment strategist is leaving to join Fortress Investments.

“It has been a great ride,” McVey, 38,
said in a statement. “I am now looking forward to working with Morgan Stanley
as a client.”

Money-management firms have lured advisers
at Morgan Stanley and other brokerages. McVey’s predecessor, Steven Galbraith,
quit in 2004 to join hedge fund Maverick Capital. Byron Wien and Barton Biggs
also left strategist roles at Morgan Stanley earlier this decade to join hedge
funds. Ajay Kapur, who had been Citigroup Investment Research’s chief global
equity strategist, left in February to create First Horse Capital.

McVey has been an accurate forecaster of the stock market. His prediction in
December 2004 that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index would end 2005 at 1250
was off by less than 2 points.

McVey Quits as Morgan Stanley Investment Strategist - Bloomberg

Tags: Fortress, Morgan Stanley, Revolving Door

His part-time job salary was $479,512 which  buys a lot of fancy haircuts….

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Tags: Fortress, Hedge funds, Politics

• Founding duo quietly groom heirs apparent
• Merrill names co-presidents; Kim leaves
• Merrill’s Kim Joins Exodus of Trading Executives to Hedge Funds
  
• Fortress Investment 1Q Profit Falls
• Private-Equity Firms Stock Up on Executives

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Tags: Fortress, KKR, Merrill Lynch, Private equity

As anticipated by its announcement last November, Fortress Investment Group. with $29.7 billion under management, filed its IPO set to raise as much as $634 million which will make it the first U.S. hedge fund to go public:

The New York-based firm plans to sell 34.3 million shares for $16.50 to $18.50 apiece, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Its five principals will control 78 percent of the company after the IPO, which values Fortress at about $7 billion.

“This is the first recent test for what the market thinks these firms are worth,” said Ben Phillips, managing director of New York-based investment bank Putnam Lovell NBF Securities. “The valuation model is still being refined.”

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Tags: Fortress, Hedge funds, IPO