Sector SPDR Growth

In an interview with Dan Dolan of Select Sector SPDRs on how the economic crunch is affecting trading rhythms, Dolan presented a broad overview of sector SPDRs and how more hedge funds and institutional investors are utilising the option of buying baskets of securities over single stock options.

Dolan developed and runs the Select Sector SPDR Trust, the ETFs which divide the S&P 500 into nine component sectors. With more than $27 billion in assets, the Trust is well into its 10th year of business.

"While most ETF providers continue to position their products as substitutes for traditional mutual funds, an attribute from which we also benefit, we're seeing increased usage of Select Sector SPDRs as substitutes for equities, to reduce single stock exposure." Dolan said, "SPDR trading volume has averaged well over 200 million shares per day in 2008 as institutional investors take advantage of the outstanding liquidity to implement their trading strategies."

Sometimes considered speculative and volatile, sector investing has finally earned a place in many portfolios either as part of “core and explore” strategies, or as a way of betting on sectors about which investors feel especially bullish. Some investors have even diversified some of their mutual fund holdings to ETFs, opting for passive products, especially during market routs.

Dolan characterizes his products as the “new blue chips,” substitutes for large concentrated positions in widely-held stocks, and a way to provide investors with downside protection by avoiding headline risk. Select Sector SPDRs were the first sector family of ETFs and is the largest based on assets and trading volume.

ARE Opportunity Fund Launch

Lee Hetfield has joined ARE Asset Management LLC, a distressed credit and distressed real estate asset management company in Florida, as Portfolio Manager.

Hetfield reports that as of May 30, 2008, ARE Asset Management launched ARE Opportunity Fund, Ltd. (British Virgin Islands). The fund works in purchasing mortgage loans, the strategy is generating returns using both loan modifications negotiated with borrowers to create loan re-performance, as well as loss mitigation techniques. Re-performing loans are held for income or sold to securitizers or other investors for a gain.

Loans that cannot re-perform, resulting in “REO” or real estate owned property, are resolved via a property sale or entered into a rental income program. The fund also opportunistically invests in senior commercial loans backed by improved real estate at low LTV’s (50-65% of 90 day liquidated value, 35%-45% of BPO), through high-yielding originations made by an affiliated commercial loan originator, SeaBreeze Financial.

The investment manager currently has $110 million under management under the strategy as that of the fund, and the results since launch have been encouraging: For the month of June the BVI fund was up 1.59%, net of expenses, and July looks to be up ~1.5% (early est.). Prior to the BVI fund launch The Manager has historically managed funds for offshore investors in fixed-term, LLC structures (in the same distressed/credit opportunities strategy).

The team is spearheaded by Jeffrey Kirsch with over 30 years of experience in commercial and residential real estate. He has managed the ARE group of companies, based in Miami, FL, since their founding in 1996. At ARE, Mr. Kirsch has overseen more than $1 billion in performing and non-performing mortgage transactions and has long-standing relationships with private and public-sector sellers.

Hedge Fund Platform To Expand Research Team

Alternative investment platform, Altegris Investments, has plans to expand their research team under the leadership of Mr. Allen Cheng, an accomplished hedge fund investment professional with extensive industry experience.

Cheng joins Altegris as Managing Director, Research and Investments, and will be a member of the Altegris Investment Committee, with responsibility for evaluating investment strategy and completing product review for the Altegris platform of alternative investments.

"Allen's breadth of experience in alternative investments, with both major financial institutions as well as private investment firms, complements the deep knowledge base of our research team," said Jon Sundt, President of Altegris Investments. "We are dedicated to maintaining a world-class research team, under Allen's expert leadership, to accomplish our mission of providing high quality alternative investments to wealth managers and high net worth investors."

Cheng joins Altegris from his recent role as Managing Director, Head of Fund of Funds Portfolio Management at Bank of America's Alternative Investment Group. He has significant experience in the alternative investment industry, particularly in the area of identifying, selecting, and monitoring hedge fund managers across multiple investment disciplines.

"Altegris offers clients a unique, open-architecture platform of alternative investments, supported by extensive review and ongoing monitoring," said Cheng. "I am energized by the opportunity to join this team specializing in alternative investments and to expand our in-depth research capabilities."

The Altegris team finds, selects and negotiates capacity with selected hedge funds, managed futures funds, and other alternative investments. Currently, investors have allocated more than $2.4 billion in trading level to alternative investments available through the Altegris platform. The Altegris Group of Companies includes Altegris Investments, APM Funds, and other affiliates.

(Update) HedgeWorld's Abrupt End Not In The Cards

In a press call with HedgeCo, a global forum for the alternative asset community, Joe Christinat of Thomson Reuters clarified the story of HedgeWorld's abrupt closing.

Christinat said that HedgeWorld will retain the format that it is in currently. They will continue to offer TASS database, and have the service provider/jobs/conference section as well as publish several newsletters including the alternative advantage newsletter.

Although unable to comment on the rumors of staff changes, Christinat said that they are continuing to follow the Thomson Reuters strategy since the purchase of Reuters by Thomson.

Launched in 1999, HedgeWorld became one of hedge fund industry’s premier information provider for individual and institutional accredited investors and their professional advisers, fund managers and service providers in the global hedge fund industry.

Global Consulting For Structured Finance In Film, Media & Entertainment

Noci Pictures Entertainment has launched a one-stop global film finance and production service consulting division. The fund is aimed at hedge funds, ultra high net worth investors, tax credit buyers, purchaser representatives, family offices, and private equity firms.

According to Noci, "Many established filmmakers and agencies involved in independent film finance and packaging face the same dilemma of throwing multiple film projects against the wall and hoping one will stick with a limited number of studios and private equity."

With a plethora of incentives ranging from United States state and federal tax incentives that in some instances can be monetized upfront to cover a portion of a budget and offset risk to private equity investors, to overseas co-production incentives that can be maximized to finance quality films, Noci Pictures Entertainment's stratrgy is to be a one stop resource, including arranging debt finance, foreign sales agency representation, talent packaging, and more.

Countries such as Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Germany, Australia, And New Zealand have film finance incentives that can be accessed to finance any number of film projects, according to the company.

The Monetization of Hedge Fund Management Firms

Opalesque is hosting a Webinar on July 10th 2008 10 am New York time: The Monetization of Hedge Fund Management Firms.

The hedge fund publishing company says there are five methods to partially monetize interests in a hedge fund management company:
(1) a traditional IPO
(2) a reverse merger into a public shell (or SPAC)
(3) a listing on AIM, without any capital being raised
(4) selling less than 100% of the equity or
(5) selling a revenue interest.

Examples of traditional IPOs would include Man, Och-Ziff, Gottex, RAB Capital; BlueBay, Polar, and Ashmore (plus Fortress, Blackstone, and Partners Group, if extended to alternative asset managers). These should not be confused with the IPOs of publicly traded closed ended funds.

Examples of reverse mergers would include GLG and Asset Alliance. Examples of an AIM listing without raising capital would include Absolute and Charlemagne. An example of a partial sale would include Highbridge and examples of revenue interests would include AQR, First Quadrant, Avenue, Lansdowne, Winton, and most firms backed by seeding platforms.

With the exception of Man and the Partners Group in Switzerland, each of the IPOs has been a disappointment relative to their initial public offering price. As for Reverse mergers, GLG has not been a success thus far, even after GLG coughed up nearly $500 million in slippage to get the deal done. The Asset Alliance - Tailwind reverse merger which was announced nearly 5 months ago has gone radio silent, which is not a positive sign.

AIM listings without raising capital lack a third party value validation when offered to the public and Absolute has been nothing short of a disaster, while Charlemagne is off more than 50%. Selling less than 100% of the equity or a revenue interest seems to work best, but a minority equity stake often imposes restrictions under which hedge fund managers chafe, while revenue interests do not. Whether a less than 100% equity stake or a revenue interest, each method still begs the question of how to monetize the rest of the ownership.

The only way to fully monetize a hedge fund management business is to sell out. Unfortunately, a total sale usually ends up with the sellers leaving at the first opportunity and the buyer usually has great difficulty in maintaining the value that it purchased. Examples of this include Glenwood, RMF, HBV, and Old Lane. As such, buyers will naturally be(a)ware and pricing will usually be lower than in other industries as a result.

A new alternative is for the hedge fund manager to sponsor the creation of a reinsurer or bank that allocates all of its investable assets to the sponsoring manager, providing a significant amount of permanent capital for the manager (making the management firm more valuable) and producing significantly higher returns for investors than the manager's funds without a proportionate increase in risk. Once the reinsurer or bank is fully developed, it can acquire some or all of the hedge fund management firm.

In this manner, the monetization process is able to benefit from many of the better points of other monetization alternatives. For example, it permits a total sale (without the normal problem of loss of control) and creates a public market for the interests of the hedge fund manager, but as a reinsurer or bank, rather than as an asset manager (which probably means higher market multiples). Carefully crafted, the transaction can be structured on a very tax efficient basis, particularly if partnership taxation for publicly traded managers or deferred compensation for offshore funds is lost.

While this alternative is yet unproven, it is more or less how Warren Buffett transitioned from being a hedge fund manager and monetized his asset management business. This summer a $15 billion hedge fund manager is likely to announce a merger with a Swiss private bank as the first step in a similar process.

The Panel:

Joseph K. Taussig is the Founder of Taussig Capital and has acted as a merchant banker for numerous financial services startups since 1990. Most of the capital for these companies has been provided by the hedge fund industry or hedge fund investors and most of the startups invest their assets in hedge fund strategies.

Matthias Knab, Director of Opalesque Ltd, will moderate this webinar. Matthias Knab is an internationally recognized expert on hedge funds and alternatives and has frequently served as chairman of hedge fund conferences in New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Miami, Bahamas, Stockholm, Dubai etc. In addition, he has presented or moderated at hedge fund events in Sydney, Cape Town, Madrid, and Bombay, and lectured at numerous universities on the subjects of hedge funds and the state of the global alternative asset management industry.

Participation in the Webinar on June 5th at 10 am New York time is limited to founders (or partners owning more than 15%) of hedge fund or FoHF management companies who would like to learn more about creating a reinsurer or bank in order to generate significant amounts of permanent capital and provide superior returns (without a proportionate increase in risk) for their investors. Provided that a founder or 15% partner is present, additional colleagues from the hedge fund or FoHF management company may also participate.

Each week, Opalesque publications are read by more than 400,000 industry professionals from all over the globe.

Hedge Fund Blackstone Opens Office in Beijing

Global alternative asset manager the Blackstone Group is opening a representative office in Beijing with former Vice President of Beijing Mainstreets Investment Group, Mr. Shan Fu as chief representative.

"The opening of our Beijing office and the appointment of Shan further underlines our deep commitment to China and the Chinese market." Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co- Founder, of Blackstone, said, "We welcome Shan to the firm and we look forward to working together."

Fu previously worked in China’s National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), the State Economic and Trade Commission of China, the Office of Economic and Trade in State Council of China, and the Office of Production of the State Council of China.

Fu commented: "I am very excited about joining Blackstone as its Chief Representative in Beijing. I look forward to working with the Blackstone China team to channel the global reach and resources of Blackstone’s alternative asset and advisory platform and increase its presence in the China markets."

Jobs In The Hedge Fund Industry

Interesting article here by hedge fund consultant Richard Wison, Hedge Fund Jobs. I have received a few inquiries as to how this works, there are a few sites where applications are taken such as HedgeFundEmployment.com among others.

"Some hedge fund professionals never graduate from high school but make over $1m/year in their job trading or selling for a hedge fund," Wilson says. There are also some tips on resume and application process.

Hedge Fund Career Trends also offers tips and links.

Final Voting Results for CSX Put Hedge Funds On Board

Rail company CSX Corporation issued its final report, showing that four of hedge fund TCI Group's nominees (Children's Investment Fund Management) received a larger number of votes than four of CSX's nominees.

"We are delighted that the certified results confirm that Alex Behring, Chris Hohn, Gil Lamphere and Tim O'Toole have all been elected to the CSX Board." The Children's Investment Fund Management and 3G Capital Partners, said, "They bring valuable railroad and management experience to the CSX Board and look forward to working constructively with their fellow directors for the benefit of all CSX stakeholders. We thank our fellow shareholders for their patience during this lengthy process and expect all newly elected board members to be seated without further delay."

The TCI/3G proposal to repeal any recent by-law amendments, including the recent by-law limiting the right of shareholders to call a special meeting, was also approved.

CSX is appealing before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Launch, Market Access to Brazil by UBS

The global Equities business of UBS announced the launch of Direct Market Access (DMA) for international clients to trade securities on the Bovespa stock exchange in Brazil. UBS is among the first broker-dealers to offer non-Brazilian clients direct electronic equities trading and execution in this major market.

Recent market regulation enacted in Brazil allows for non-domestic investors access to direct electronic trading on Bovespa (Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo), a Sao Paulo-based stock exchange. Bovespa is the second-largest stock exchange in the Americas, and the third largest in the world.

"We have a longstanding commitment to providing clients with seamless, direct, electronic access to the major markets all over the world." Mario Campos, Head of Latin America Sales & Trading, said, "We are pleased to be one of the first brokers to offer global clients with DMA in Brazil."

"International DMA is one milestone in providing advanced electronic trading in this market – other tools and strategies will follow very soon," said Will Sterling, Head of Institutional Electronic Trading. "Making DMA available for clients trading into Brazil is particularly exciting, given our global buy-side clients’ increasing focus on this region."

With offices in 50 countries, UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. Its shares are listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).

German Hedge Fund Manager Becomes Fully Operational Bank

Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG has been granted membership to the Compensation Fund of German Banks(EdB) by the German Financial Supervisory Authority(BaFin).

Once the entry into the commercial register has been completed, the institution will be known under its corporate name, Baader Bank AG.

"Receiving the full banking licence is a significant sign of the faith that is placed in the capability of our bank', commented Uto Baader, Chairman of the Baader Board of Directors.

The bank operates as an all-round service provider for asset managers and other institutional customers as well as an arranger of financial innovations. The main products and services provided by the bank include certificates, publicly offered funds, single hedge funds and funds of hedge funds as well as managed accounts.

Baader Service Bank currently has 26 employees and reported net profit of EUR 0.56 million ($1 million) with total assets of EUR 53.3 million ($83.2) in 2007.

$100 Million Legacy Africa Alpha Fund Launched By Bank - Hedge Fund Duo

Florida based hedge fund manager INTL Consilium LLC and First City Monument Bank Plc have jointly launched the Legacy Africa Alpha Fund, a $100 million hedge fund investing in Africa and the Middle East.

"The new Legacy Africa Alpha Fund is a natural extension to our global products as we have been investing aggressively in the region for three years now." Jonathan Binder, co-portfolio manager, said.

Structured as an absolute return fund, the strategy focuses on capital appreciation and income via investments in debt and equity securities in sovereign or corporate entities located in Africa and the Middle East. The goal of the strategy is to produce consistent absolute returns while maintaining attractive risk-adjusted return profiles, irrespective of the conditions of the global markets.

The Legacy Africa Alpha Fund will place a 30% cap on its Middle Eastern weighting to ensure significant exposure to Africa’s fastest growing economies,

"INTL already has over $450 million invested in the region in both debt and equity securities in over 16 different countries as they were quick to identify value and growth opportunities at a time when many investors shied away." co-portfolio manager Charles Cassel added, "The Legacy Africa Alpha Fund is an exciting venture for our team, as it will allow us to leverage our existing knowledge and contacts within the region."

In addition to the Legacy Africa Alpha Fund, CSL is simultaneously launching two additional funds under the flagship “Legacy” brand. The Legacy 50 Fund, an index tracker of Nigeria’s top 50 companies by market capitalization and the Legacy Banking 10, driven semi active fund investing in Nigerian Banking shares will each be launched with N3 billion under management. This will bring total assets under management to N24 billion ($ 205 million), making it arguably the largest asset manager in Nigeria.

Hedge Fund Hotels Nurture Start-Ups

Hedge funds have grown from as few as 300 funds in 1990 to more than 10,000 today. However, there has been a recent drop in new fund launches due to the recent credit crunch, closures and bankruptcy have dislodged talented managers who are now looking to start up investment pools of thier own.

Hedge fund hotels are playing an important role in the process of new hedge fund formation, giving talented yet little known managers a place to start from, while both minimizing costs and distractions to the investment process.

Companies such as HedgeCo LLC, a NY-West Palm Beach hedge fund service provider, has opened a hedge fund hotel in midtown Manhattan offering tenants a ‘plug and play’ solution, and features such as windowed offices, private workstations and team rooms.

"No other firm offers office space with as many benefits." Evan Rapoport, Co-Founder of HedgeCo, said, "We are pleased to be in the position to offer these servicies at this important time of growth in the hedge fund industry"

Following in the trend, KnowledgeSuites has opened a hedge fund hotel in Toronto and Eurekahedge in Singapore, there have also been stories of hedge fund hotels springing up in the Hamptons, as well as more in the Cayman Islands.

Hedge fund hotels typicaly come pre-furnished, with receptionist, conference room with plasma, copy machines, kitchen, bloomberg terminal, access to capital introduction events, conference passes and discounts on various hedge fund services, as is the case with HedgeCo’s Manhattan opening.

"Hedge fund hotels simply add incremental liquidity and opportunity into the investment landscape." Roger Ehrenberg of Information arbritage says, "If a manager can’t cut it, they fail and go home. If they do make it, however, riches are bestowed upon them…especially if the firm has the ability to seed top prospects and reserve future capacity."

Wealthy Americans Prefer Alternatives To Traditional Investments

The recent Bank of America Survey of high net worth Americans indicates that US investors understand the risk and rewards of hedge fund investments. Many expressed greater satisfaction over the last 12 months with their holdings in alternatives, including hedge funds, venture capital, real estate and private equity, than their more traditional investments, including stocks and bonds.

Surveying more than 400 high net worth investors with greater than $3 million in investable assets, 267 held investments in alternatives overall, including 92 who held investments in hedge funds or hedge funds of funds. Nearly one-third (32%) of the data collected focused on the attitudes of individuals with investable assets of $10 million or more.

The findings also indicated a positive relationship between satisfaction with alternative investments and the length of time the investments were held. Investors with 10 or more years of experience in alternatives were almost twice as likely as those with fewer than 10 years of experience to be "extremely satisfied” with their total portfolio since their initial investment.

Negative stories published about hedge funds appear not to have deterred experienced hedge fund investors, according to the survey's findings. When asked if negative publicity about hedge funds impacted their investment decisions, 44 percent of those invested in hedge fund vehicles said no and only 20 percent said yes.

"Our study demonstrates that, despite the portrayal of hedge fund investors as risk-takers investing in aggressive managers," David Bailin, president of Bank of America Alternative Investment Solutions, said, "Many high net worth investors have a realistic understanding of the risks associated with their holdings and realize that large alternatives managers are institutional in their investment approach and the quality of their investment professionals.”

Sidley Expands Hedge Fund Practice in London

Sidley Austin has further expanded its hedge fund practice in London by hiring a new counsel in the Investment Funds, Advisers and Derivatives practice.

Barry Breen has joined the firm’s London office and will focus his practice on hedge funds and further expand Sidley’s fund capabilities in London. "Barry is a talented and experienced hedge fund lawyer and we are pleased to have him join us to enhance our growing fund capabilities in Europe," said Bruce Gardner, head of the hedge fund practice in London.

Breen will advise clients on the organization of offshore and onshore hedge funds, including master/feeder,fund of funds and side by side investment structures, commodity pools, registered fund of funds and mutual funds, ETFs, and the registration, regulation and governance of registered management investment companies.

"I am thrilled to join a firm with such a respected and renowned global investment funds practice," said Breen. "I look forward to working with Bruce, David and the other partners in the practice to continue to build and strengthen the funds team in London, Europe and globally."

Breen previously was with Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP in the Financial Services, Hedge Funds and Capital Markets practice operating out of their New York and London offices.

Sidley has a international practice in structuring and advising investment funds and advisers. In 2006 and 2007, the Alpha Awards(TM) for hedge fund service providers ranked Sidley as the number one onshore hedge fund law firm. Additionally, in 2008, the firm was named "Investment Funds Team of the Year for the U.S." by Chambers and Partners. In 2007, Sidley also was named Investment Funds Law Firm of the Year by Asian Legal Business. The Investment Funds, Advisers and Derivatives practice group consists of more than 100 lawyers in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Tokyo.

Southridge Launches Atypical Market Neutral Fund

Southridge LLC, a New York financial holding company, is launching a "not as you know" market neutral fund to addd to their portfolio of funds.

The new fund, Southridge Market Neutral US LP has the capacity to grow to $1 billion, the fund will have a $500,000 investment minimum, 2/20 fees and monthly liquidity.

Ten years in the making, Southridge Market Neutral is designed and managed by Andrew G. White, CFA. "We’re quite encouraged that our new fund strongly outperformed during first half of 08, despite being a start-up in truly hostile markets. We’re even more optimistic for the future." White commented.

“We launched the fund as quantitative market neutral, but not as you know quant or market neutral," White said, "High return with low downside risk is possible if you first focus on return using objective trend-following in US large/mid cap stocks and then employ risk control including NO leverage.”

Focusing on what works and why, the strategy is objective trend-following instead of subjective mean reversion. Investing in US large/mid caps (100% long / 100% short), the fund strategy unusually uses no leverage or factor hedging. Nonetheless, risk/return profile is similar to 6:1 leveraged market neutral funds, but with a vastly smaller market footprint and black swan exposure.

Stephen Hicks, Southridge's CEO, said, “As we leverage our twelve year track record at Southridge, we look forward to further broadening our product line for our investor base and view the Southridge Market Neutral US strategy as an integral part of that mosaic.”

SEC Compliance Alert Warns Investor Advisers On Ethics

The SEC has released a new 'ComplianceAlert' letter identifying common deficiencies and weaknesses that SEC examiners have found during recent compliance examinations of registered investment companies and broker-dealers.

The alert finds weakness in several areas including; personal trading by investment advisory employees, incomplete code of ethics, soft dollar practices, "Free lunch" sales seminars, broker-dealers' issues, supervision, and use of mortgage financing as credit for the purchase of securities among others.

"Our June 2007 ComplianceAlert was very well-received by industry compliance and legal professionals," said Lori Richards, Director of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. "Many industry compliance staff told us that, after reading it, they reviewed their firms' practices in the areas we noted and took steps to ensure that their firms' practices were fully compliant. By highlighting our recent examination findings in this way, we expect that this second ComplianceAlert will be similarly helpful to industry firms that are seeking to be proactive in addressing compliance risks."

Iraqi Babylon Fund Maintains Calm in June

So far this summer, with only some slight exaggeration, Iraq could comparatively be portrayed as a stable, safe & secure place, according to the Fact Sheet for June 2008 for the Iraqi Babylon Fund.

Relative calmness characterized Babylon Fund's performance in June, mainly trading sideway with a modest 0.6% performance in the red at closing. Most of the fund's sectors, asset classes and portfolio holdings experienced calm waters, except for the internationally traded oil companies whose volatility increased significantly.

The overall portfolio strategy has allowed the Iraqi fund to stay in positive territory through the year, with a +1.7% performance on a YTD basis. In anticipation of increased riskadjusted returns on the medium-term we continue to add to our Iraqi

The Babylon Fund is an open-ended mutual fund investing into large-cap Iraqi-dependant securities, mainly listed on the Iraqi stock exchange in Baghdad, but also in other countries.

Asia's 5 Largest Single-Manager Hedge Funds

Asia-based funds are getting bigger according to Alpa Magazine. Several of the funds on the list are relative newcomers and five members of the Asia 25 ranking were not on the list last year.

The 25 largest funds in Asia collectively had $52.2 billion in assets as of March 31, up from $35.5 billion a year earlier and $22.6 billion at the start of 2006.

Tokyo-headquartered Sparx Group Co. ranks No. 1 on the Alpha 2008 Asia Hedge Fund 25 for the second year in a row, with $8.1 billion in assets under management. Hong Kong-based Value Partners, which controls $5.9 billion, is No. 2 again, also retaining its 2007 ranking. Singapore's Artradis Fund Management climbs from eighth to third by almost quadrupling its size, to $4.7 billion. And although Singapore-based Arisaig Partners slipped from third to fourth, it nearly doubled its assets under management, to $4.3 billion.

Sparx's lead is precarious. The company is in negotiations to sell a majority stake in its $3 billion Seoul-based Cosmo Investment Management Co., a move that would drop it into second place behind Value Partners and only slightly ahead of Artradis.

Hedge Fund Backed GlamMedia Hires ExGoogle Director

Michael Adair, former head of sales finance for Google North America is joining Glam Media Inc, a global web-publishing network, as Vice President of Corporate Development and Finance.

“I am excited to join Glam Media’s executive team as we leverage Glam’s vertical network model that it is ripe for expansion,” said Michael Adair. “Glam’s focus on creating the right network model for display advertising makes them one of the most exciting companies in media today.”

This newly created position involves evaluation and execution of Glam Media’s strategic investments, corporate development and corporate finance. The company is backed by hedge fund GLG Partners, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, and Information Capital among others.

While at Google, Adair directed Google’s North American sales finance team and worked closely with Google’s president of advertising and commerce. Adair helped lead the team that managed strategic acquisitions responsible for over $3.5 billion in revenue, including dMarc, YouTube and DoubleClick.