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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Encouraged by a promising investment environment and accelerated investment pace, New York-based special opportunities fund, Atalaya Capital Management LP, today announced that it has expanded its team, adding three investment professionals and a marketing professional.
“Recent positive changes in our target investment markets have prompted Atalaya to bolster our professional platform in order to capitalize on market conditions and new opportunities,” said Ivan Q. Zinn, Founding Partner & Chief Investment Officer.
Josh Ufberg joined as a Principal from Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group, while Rana Mitra and Alex Wang have joined the team responsible for the sourcing and purchase of private credit assets as Senior Associate and Associate, respectively. Ashley Fochtman joined the Firm as a Vice President and will be working in a business development capacity. Previously, Ms. Fochtman worked in hedge fund marketing and at Goldman Sachs as an energy derivatives analyst.
Founded by Mr. Zinn in 2006, Atalaya focuses on the opportunistic purchase of senior secured credit from forced sellers, failed financial institutions and sellers in need of liquidity such as banks, commercial finance companies, and other financial and investment institutions.
About Atalaya Capital Management
Atalaya Capital Management is an alternative investment firm focused on investing in small and middle market credit opportunities. Since inception in early 2006, the Firm has successfully invested over $1 billion through (1) the opportunistic purchase of private, senior secured credit from forced sellers, failed financial institutions and sellers in need of liquidity, and (2) proprietary ‘new issue’ credit investments including DIP loans and other senior secured financings.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – State Street Corporation released two papers on alternative investments as part of its Vision series of thought-leadership reports. The papers examine two key components of alternative investments, hedge funds and private equity, and their future prospects amid the global economic downturn.
While both industries have been hard-hit by the financial crisis, they will likely adapt to the changed investment environment and continue to provide significant long-term opportunities for institutional investors, State Street says.
“With so much debate within these sectors as complexity has heightened over the past year, we want to help identify the actual market conditions and trends that will determine the future of hedge funds and private equity,” said Jack Klinck, executive vice president and global head of State Street’s Alternative Investment Solutions team. “The research and insights presented in these reports will help institutional investors as they make their investing decisions.”
“New Views of the Hedge Fund Industry” cites two major trends affecting the industry: a migration to third-party administration and custody services and increased regulatory oversight. While hedge fund redemptions are expected to continue through 2009, according to the report, “anecdotal evidence suggests that investors are starting to regain confidence.”
“The hedge fund industry will emerge from the financial crisis – smaller, in terms of the number of funds, but eventually larger in terms of assets under management,” the report states.
State Street’s second Vision paper, “Private Equity at the Cross Roads,” notes that although the industry is currently under pressure from the financial crisis and recession, “many believe that private equity is about to enter a new phase of more sustainable growth. Over the long-term, investors and governments will look to private equity for its significant capital resources, management expertise, and high risk tolerance to help restore economic strength as impaired assets are wound down and fresh investments are required for new and expanding businesses.”
With approximately $252 billion in hedge fund assets as of March 31, 2009, State Street provides a complete set of servicing and management solutions for hedge funds, including recordkeeping, fund accounting, valuation, risk management and regulatory reporting.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The recent wave of scandal related to hedge funds and funds of funds has made investors think twice about investing in self-administrated funds, see ‘Andrew Schneider on Nadel Funds’.
Dermot Butler, Chairman of alternative fund administrator, Custom House Group, said, “In today’s new investment environment, more than ever hedge funds and funds-of-funds must have independent outside administrators as a foundation to help rebuild investor confidence and attract new investment capital.”
Fund administrators, such as the $35 billion Custom House Group, provide a range of services to funds and fund-of-funds including (but not limited to), fund accounting, portfolio valuation, NAV calculation and shareholder services as well as anti-money laundering services and reconciliation services and record-keeping functions.
“In anything less than an independent fund administration relationship, there is at the very least a perception that a conflict of interest may exist that could prevent objective verification of a fund’s investment activities and even the existence of underlying assets in a given fund, let alone an objective and accurate valuation of the fund’s assets,” Butler said. “This perceived conflict may occur when an outside administrator is affiliated with a financial institution, with an investment manager, or when the administrator is associated with a hedge fund itself.”
“As stand-alone companies, independent administrators have no affiliations to any outside financial entities, et ergo, no such conflicts exist,” he concluded.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
