Released on: July 2, 2008, 2:21 am

Press Release Author: Opalesque Ltd

Industry: Financial

Press Release Summary: Opalesque, the world\'s largest subscription-based publisher
on alternative investments, hosts a Webinar: The Monetization of Hedge Fund
Management Firms on July 10th 2008 10 am New York time.

Registration is now open and qualified participants (see below) can register here:
www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=static&and=webinar


Press Release Body: Traditional Ways to Partially Monetize A Hedge Fund Management
Company

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.

Selling Out

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.

Creating a Reinsurer or Bank and Merging Some or All of the Hedge Fund Manager into it

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.

Our 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.

Limited to founders (or partners owning more than 15%) of hedge fund or FoHF
management companies
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.
Registration is now open and qualified participants can register here:
www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=static&and=webinar

About Opalesque:

Since February 2003, Opalesque is publishing Alternative Market Briefing, the
premium news service on hedge funds and alternatives. The launch of these Briefing
was a revolution in the hedge fund media space (\"Opalesque changed the world by
bringing transparency where there was opacity and by delivering an accurate
professional reporting service.\" - Nigel Blanchard, Culross) combining proprietary
news with the "clipping service" approach of integrating third party news. Each
week, Opalesque publications are read by more than 400,000 industry professionals
from all over the globe.
Opalesque is the only daily hedge fund publisher which is actually read by the elite
managers themselves (www.opalesque.com/op_testimonials.html). For more information,
please go to www.opalesque.com


Web Site: http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=static&and=webinar

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