Advisor Emerges for ABS Holders
Two executives who played major roles in creating the structured-finance business at trustee LaSalle Bank are starting a firm to help hedge funds and other holders of securitized products. Russ Goldenberg and Doug Hart expect to launch their Cortland Capital in August. They’ll use the Chicago-based outfit to pursue a range of administrative and servicing work, focusing on clients who need help managing portfolios of commercial and residential properties, home-loan pools, mortgage-related securities and credit derivatives. Potential customers include hedge fund managers, private equity shops, mortgage servicers, pension plans and pension advisors. Cortland also plans to seek business from collateral managers for CDOs, commercial mortgage bond issues, structured investment vehicles and securities-arbitrage conduits. Including Goldenberg and Hart, Cortland has about eight staffers so far. Among them: business-development chief Lora Peloquin and leveraged-loan specialist Suzanne Smith, both of whom were senior vice presidents at LaSalle before coming on board. Goldenberg’s tenure at LaSalle began in 1993, when he and four other executives founded the bank’s securitization-trust business. He then went on to oversee trust services for residential and commercial MBS until exiting the bank in April 2007. After that, he spent a year working on private real estate ventures. Hart joined LaSalle in 1995. During his time there, he set up and ran what would become one of the CDO market’s leading trustee operations — while also overseeing a related fundadministration arm. That unit handles servicing and processing duties related to CDOs and hedge funds. Hart left LaSalle on May 15. He and Goldenberg teamed up to form Cortland
JULY 2, 2008
2 Firm Parlays Gains Into Laun ch Plans 2 Advisor Emerges for ABS Holders 3 Ahab Forming Distressed-Debt Entity 3 Founder of Char ity Reducing Role 3 SAC Exec Head ed for Boston Outp ost 3 Former Bear Stearns Fund on Block 5 Oslo Firm Prep s Carbon-Tradin g Fund 5 CALENDAR 7 LATEST LAUN CHES
THE GRAPEVINE
situation investme to manage specialnts for the New hedge fund man York ager Zaltzman resigned . A month earlier, from Lehman Brothers, whe re he book for the bank ran a proprietary May and Jordan along with Mark May. Wru their Lehman team ble, an analyst on bank — for unk , have also left the now and Zaltzman had n destinations. May at Steve Bloom’s also worked together Saga once $2 billion outf more Hill Capital, a it that shut dow 2006. n in
ael Reeves join ed $1.5 billion Vermillion Asse t Management last month as the firm’s dire ctor of institutio nal marketing. Reev es was previously head See
GRAPEVINE on Back Page
Leon Zaltzman joined $4 billion Aristeia Capital on June 23
Mich
billion U.S. version the $2.4 through May, after of Treesdale Fixed Income Fun billion it posted Aug. 1, 2007. d the first five mon losing 4% last year. Its offshore was down 7.4% for the year companion was ths of this year, and down 2.4% down 5.7% for Both funds were last year. up for each of the losses for every first six months mon 0.2% and the offsh th since then, except for January, of 2007, but have suffered after it began post ore entity was up 0.4%. Investors when the U.S. vehicle was up ing monthly losse began pulling asse s. In its June letter ts shortly portfolio has shie to investors, Treesdale’s manager lded them “from s significant downsid reported that their defensive e throughout the credit crisis”
See BOND on Page 2
e Partners vehicles, has shru , which operates funds of fund nk by s that invest in fixed-income The New York firm 30% over the past 11 months. , headed by Yung under managem Lim and Dennis ent as of June 1, Rhee, reported down from $1.7 The
Bond Fund of Funds Shrinks 30% Treesdal
n this week, whe remaining capital John Regan, foun n it gave der of the New in its hedge fund. Steeple’s modest size, which had York firm, made the decision beca dwindled to less difficult to attra ct fresh capital. than $100 million, use he felt made it too Steeple operated the same investme a handful of U.S. and offshore vehi cles Fund was down nt strategy in the healthcare secto that essentially followed a net 7.3% through r. Steeple Capital 0.2% gain in 2006 Offshore . Despite the stron June 15. It posted a 20.7% gain in 2007 and a significant new g 2007 results, the capital. firm was unable Regan establishe to bring in Conn., where he d Steeple in 2004 after leaving ran the Andor Hea Andor Capital of Greenwich, about $600 mill ion. But flat perf lthcare fund. At its height, Stee ple ormance in 2006 and single-digit was running returns in 2005
See HEALTHCA RE on Page 5
See SHAKEUP on Page 2 Unable to Grow , Healthcare Fu Healthcare-stock nd Pulls Plug investor Steeple back to investors Capital shut dow the
Citigroup last week laid off two of its of a shakeup of top capital-intro its prim duction executive The pink slips were e-brokerage unit. s as part handed to Dan head of capital intro duction, and John Lancellotti, a Citi veteran who team. was Fell, who ran the North American global Jamison Hill, cap-intro who joined the prim multi-manager shops identify hedg e-brokerage operation in Dece assuming a seni mber to help e fund investme or nt prime-brokerage role. Before moving to Citi, Hill opportunities, is said to be unit worked in Bank East Coast. Earlier under Jenny Fung, who over saw capital intro of America’s this month, BofA duction on the BNP Paribas. agreed to sell its prime-brokerage business to The departures of Lancellotti and Fell follow the exit last week of Steve Bow man ,
2 Cap-Intro Ex ecs Axed in Cit i
Shakeup
shortly thereafter. LaSalle was a unit of ABN Amro until October, when the Dutch bank sold the Chicago operation to Bank of America. Structured-finance deals have typically accounted for most of LaSalle’s trustee assignments.
HEDGE FUND ALERT: July 2, 2008, 5 Marine View Plaza, Suite 400, Hoboken NJ 07030. 201-659-1700