…slowly getting back into his old game – casino operators. In a best case scenario, Icahn will be ready to make a deal. MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) is a potential suitor, a company with a $6 billion market cap and the financials capable of making a deal.
Bill Mahoney, Bridgewater’s Marketer in Growth Years, Dies at 55 (Bloomberg)
Bill Mahoney, who led global sales and marketing and became an equity partner at Bridgewater Associates LP, the world’s largest hedge fund, before retiring to pursue other interests before his 50th birthday, has died. He was 55. He died on April 30 at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut, his wife, Alice Bartlett Mahoney, said today in an interview. The cause was pancreatic cancer. Mahoney worked at Westport, Connecticut-based Bridgewater from 1998 to 2006, following a job at Bankers Trust Australia. Bridgewater, founded in 1975 by Ray Dalio, had about $10 billion in assets under management in 1998, according to an article on Mahoney’s arrival in Investment Management Weekly. By November 2005, the figure had soared to $141 billion. Today, the company manages about $150 billion, according to its website.
Hedge Fund Investor, Merchant Bank Team Up to Hunt Zombie Funds (Private Equity Hub)
In what could the start of a trend to free up an estimated $100 billion trapped in U.S. buyout shop funds with little hope of raising fresh cash, an Alabama-based merchant bank and a Texas hedge fund investor with roots to the oil fortune of Perry R. Bass announced plans to form Crestline-Kirchner Private Equity Group. W.B. (Bud) Kirchner, the founder of 28-year-old Kirchner Group, a Birmingham, Ala.-based bank with a specialty in working with portfolio companies and limited partners in the buyout world, will head up the new firm. But most of the staffing and capital for the venture will come from Ft. Worth, Texas-based Crestline Investors Inc. Crestline will group the new zombie business under $1.9 billion in capital allocated under its “opportunistic investments” umbrella.
Martinovich Fraud Case Winds Down (FINalternatives)
A jury is set to begin considering the fate of accused hedge fund fraudster Jeffrey Martinovich today, as the MICG Investment Management CEO awaits a verdict that could send him to prison for centuries. Prosecutors and Martinovich’s defense team made their closing arguments yesterday in Newport News, Va., federal court. Prosecutors allege that Martinovich routinely misled investors about the value of MICG’s hedge fund and its investments to overcharge them, and ran a Ponzi scheme to boot. “It’s a story of fraud committed by this man to keep his company afloat and to line his own pockets,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Samuels told the jury.
David A Geffen launches hedge fund advisory practice (HedgeWeek)
David A Geffen has launched Geffen Advisors, a consulting firm focused exclusively on the hedge fund industry. Geffen Advisors offers strategic advice and solutions to hedge funds in several core practice areas including treasury management, counterparty risk management, and fund launch. Additionally, Geffen Advisors will provide outsourced chief operating officer solutions and specialised training services. The firm’s treasury management and counterparty risk management offerings provide advice to hedge funds in managing their prime brokerage and related activities more effectively while mitigating the counterparty risk inherent in those relationships.
