This is a tough environment in which to raise money for a new hedge fund. The latest to learn this painful lesson: Chris Boas, former global head of credit at Chicago hedge fund firm Citadel’s securities unit. Boas’s London firm, Longwood Credit Partners LLP, scrapped plans to launch a hedge fund, citing fundraising market conditions, according to Bloomberg.
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Long-time Wall Streeter Felix Zulauf, perhaps best known for his participation in the Barron’s roundtable, is launching a new hedge fund with his 30 year-old son in Switzerland. The new Zug-based firm, called Vicenda Asset Management, recently raised $50 million. This is the first time Zulauf will be running money for outsiders since 2009, when the one-time UBS global strategist converted Zulauf Asset Management into a family office.
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Hedge fund self-promoter extraordinaire Anthony Scaramucci has moved on to his next project. The creator of the very successful SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas, also known as the SALT conference, is teaming up with restaurateur Eytan Sugarman and Morgan Stanley veteran David Barrett to create a restaurant and bar he says is targeted at young employees at banks, brokerages and money-management firms. “Mooch,” as he likes to be called, is trying to raise $4 million for The Hunt and Fish Club. If all goes well, it will open in December. Investors will receive 30 percent of the total equity and 80 percent of all distributions until they reach the amount of their initial investment.
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Mariner Investment Group named Peter van Dooijeweert, the former head of equity relative value trading at Citigroup, to run a global equity volatility portfolio for its new multi-strategy incubation platform. His portfolio will be called the Mariner Equity Volatility Strategy. Van Dooijeweert has managed portfolios of equity options and other derivatives at investment banks and hedge funds since 1995. The strategy will focus on comparing the relative value of options across single name equities, market sectors, and global indices to build portfolios that profit from identified mispricings. Mariner manages $10 billion of assets in single and multi-strategy hedge funds, funds of funds and other alternative investments services.
