Hedgies Discover Columbus, Wilkes-Barre

Big hedge fund plans are coming to small U.S. cities. Chris Henneforth, for example, who cut his HF teeth in New York and Chicago, decided to launch his Level Partners hedge fund in Columbus, Ohio, with college buddy David Raeuchle, according to the Columbus Business Journal.

Big hedge fund plans are coming to small U.S. cities. Chris Henneforth, for example, who cut his HF teeth in New York and Chicago, decided to launch his Level Partners hedge fund in Columbus, Ohio, with college buddy David Raeuchle, according to the Columbus Business Journal. Columbus is not exactly a hotbed of hedge fund activity – though Diamond Hill Investment Group in town does sparkle with $2.7 billion AUM – but Henneforth told the Journal, “I saw that these aren’t things we can’t do here in Columbus,” and found hedge funds were the perfect vehicle for keeping private a great new market idea. Meanwhile, one state over, Ambit Funding has dreams of giving hedge funds a high profile in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., population 41,000. According to managing director Benjamin Shoval, in an interview with the city’s Times Leader, “We expect to be able to compete with some of the big boys in New York.” The first two offerings, Ambit Bridge Loan Fund and Ambit Bridge Loan Fund International, may be new, but they are not the city’s first hedge funds. Six years ago, Shoval says he managed three hedge funds but soon returned capital to investors and shut them down. “I learned a lot from the experience,” he says, and reportedly will manage the new funds with dad, Y. Judd Shoval, who founded a major investment firm in town, Shoval Enterprises, and William Levinski. The new funds, expected in months, will “follow the pattern” of an existing private equity fund Ambit runs.