Todays Zaman- Gottesman, a renowned workaholic, often called each of them over the weekend, but a full staff meeting was unusual. The group buzzed with anticipation about what it might mean. At last, Gottesman, a quietly spoken Israeli-born American, looked up from his desk. He said: “We’ve sold GLG to Lehman Brothers.”
There was a stunned silence. For the past 18 months as speculation raged over the future of GLG, the most feared option internally was becoming part of an investment bank. But then Gottesman burst out laughing, along with his fellow co-founder, Pierre Lagrange, a long-haired, goateed Belgian, and GLG’s third principal partner Emmanuel “Manny” Roman, once one of Goldman Sach’s most powerful investment bankers.
Serious again, the three principals explained that the next day, by reversing into a special purpose acquisition vehicle called Freedom, GLG was listing in America and would become the biggest public pure-play hedge fund in the world.
Better still, the top 16 employees would share a windfall of $150 million (75 million pounds) and own 11 of the company, which has a market value of $3.5 billion. Even for this elite group, some of the best-paid men in London, the figures were eye-watering.
The float has catapulted GLG into the mainstream. By reversing into Freedom, GLG automatically picked up investors that include Fidelity, Wellington, Putnam as well as about 20 other hedge funds, including London’s Och Ziff.
