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30 May 2007

Hedge Fund Gala Raises $५१.७ Million For Children

This year's ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) 2007 Gala Dinner at Marlborough House on Pall Mall, London had a spectacular light, video and laser show, with Prince as the main act, many companies pitched in to raise an amazing £26.2 million ($51.7 million) for the charity. The event was set up by the hedge fund industry to raise money for children affected by poverty, abuse, disability and illness.

The event was produced by Starlight Design and attended by a star studded guest list of over 1000 including Bill Clinton, Madonna, Sir Bob Geldof, David Bailey, Liz Hurley and many more.

During the dinner, the ARK charity organization announced the launch of the Clinton-ARK Initiative for Mozambique, through a strategic partnership with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI). The partnership will support the delivery of rapid and high quality care and treatment for HIV/AIDS sufferers in Mozambique.

On the main stage were 35 square meters of visuals, flown over the stage, showing images and moving footage created and edited specially for the event. One of the evening’s highlights was the screening of a hard-hitting film illustrating the work performed by ARK workers worldwide over the last 12 months, underlining the issues the organization is trying to address. The hedge fund team pulled no punches in order to energize the wealthy and fortunate to be generous in their donations.

Renowned visual designer/video artist Gary Oldknow of Deepvisual was commissioned by CMT to VJ for the evening, He created an exciting organic style collage of interesting abstract images on the LED screen.

Creative Media Techniques (CMT) supplied video and image based services and lasers for the last effect the guest saw when leaving, the total money, £ 26.6 million ($51.7 million)– raised by the event from tickets, lasered on the ceiling. The event was sponsored by Bloomberg, UBS, Merril Lynch, BlueCrest and a charity auction that alone brought in over £4 million.

Tim Fothergill says: “The ARK event is a show that, despite being draining physically, mentally, and emotionally, gives the greatest feeling of being a part of something so important to those less fortunate in the UK and around the world. Our team are proud to be a part of it and put in an incredible amount of work to make it all happen in seemingly impossible timescales.”

Hedge Fund Managers Launch Artemis Capital Partners

Don Kurz and Salomon Konig have announced the launch of Artemis Capital Partners LLC, a hedge fund formed to offer structured products designed to deliver significant portfolio diversification and exceptional risk-adjusted returns, according to a press release today.

Artemis combines a proprietary, quantitative investment selection process with broad diversification to meet the objective of preserving wealth in times of extreme event risk while maintaining the ability to achieve strong risk-adjusted returns. Its investment thesis was developed over a two-year period and extensively tested in a 12-year blind test (1995-2006).

“We understand the world doesn’t need more ‘me-too’ alternative investment vehicles. We believe, however, that the market is seeking a market-neutral vehicle that delivers true portfolio diversification, capital preservation, and an opportunity for strong risk-adjusted returns. Artemis designs its products to meet this market need. Our goal is to consistently beat the HFRI Fund of Funds Weighted Composite Index, as well as major world stock market indices, as measured by risk-adjusted returns,” says Don Kurz, Managing Member and CEO of Artemis Capital Partners.

“At Artemis Capital Partners, our approach is designed to generate stable and consistent returns via rigorous investment selection, extensive diversification and prudent application of leverage,” says Salomon Konig, Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer of Artemis Capital Partners. “By drawing upon our proprietary databases and investment models, we design structured investment vehicles engineered to optimize risk-adjusted returns.”

Don Kurz is Managing Member and CEO of Artemis Capital Partners, LLC. Prior to forming Artemis, Kurz was President and Owner of Insight Creative Solutions, Inc. (ICS), a venture investor and provider of general management consulting services. Prior to his work with ICS, Kurz was Chairman, President and CEO of EMAK Worldwide, Inc, a global, NASDAQ-traded company providing strategic and marketing services to Fortune 500 companies internationally.

Salomon Konig is Managing Member, CIO and Portfolio Manager of Artemis Capital Partners, LLC. Konig has been working in finance, investments and hedge funds for more than 30 years, in the US and Latin America. Konig is a Board Member of The Hedge Fund Association and has served as a partner to intellectual pioneers in financial analysis, including Jack Schwager, Roger Ibbotson, and Charles Friefeld. Prior to forming Artemis, Konig was President and owner of American Lead Ventures, an advisor to family offices and funds of funds and a Senior Consultant to Global Partners Group, where he analyzed, seeded and incubated hedge funds and funds of hedge funds.

Artemis Capital Partners now has offices in Aventura, Florida and Los Angeles, California. BNP Paribas is the Firm’s structured products counterparty. The Company works with Meridian Fund Services Limited for Fund Administration; auditing and tax services are provided by Spicer Jeffries, LLP. The Securities Law Group serves as legal counsel.

Hedge Fund Platform Expands To India

CacheMatrix Holdings, LLC today announced the creation of CacheMatrix India, a wholly-owned and fully-integrated subsidiary based in Bangalore, India.

In the first five months of 2007, hedge fund platform CacheMatrix has more than doubled its client base, which includes several of the largest banks and financial institutions in the world, as well as leading hedge fund administrators, custodians and mutual fund companies.

The Bangalore facility provides development capacity and expertise for the company’s unique money fund portal technology that is being incorporated into a growing roster of multinational banks. Unlike typical outsourcing models in which companies transfer management control of a business function to an outside supplier, CacheMatrix India serves as a virtual extension of the company’s core technology facility based in Denver.

“We have taken a different approach to doing business in India, and we believe it will pay dividends for us as we expand our service offerings globally,” said CacheMatrix Founder and CEO George Hagerman. “Our Bangalore facility is fully integrated into our U.S. operations and our India presence is a lasting extension of our core company.”

The Bangalore facility is headed by an Indian national who lived in Denver and was one of the original team members who wrote the CacheMatrix software code. He returned to Bangalore in 2006 to establish the CacheMatrix subsidiary in India.

The CacheMatrix India team is part of CacheMatrix’s global product development and support model. The Bangalore team has equal responsibility in development, testing and support and provides 24 hour global development and support capabilities to CacheMatrix.

CacheMatrix enables banks and other financial services firms to offer its corporate clients on-line access to a choice of institutional funds and a convenient, single source platform for managing them, including access to comprehensive analysis, online trading, and account management.