7:45-8:00 Registration

8:00-9:00 Investor Panel

Three investors representing different perspectives will share their thoughts on issues concerning investors at this time. Among topics to be discussed are strategies of most interest in the current environment; investing with large managers versus investing with emerging managers; liquidity expectations/concerns; risk management; fees; and other investor concerns about hedge funds.

Andrea Rafael, Yeshiva University

Hance West, Investure

Larry Morgenthal, UBP Asset Management

9:00-10:15 Manager Presentations

James Gellert, Windcrest Partners (long/short equity with focus on underfollowed, small US companies)

Yaron “Ron” Reuven, Reuven Capital Investments (long/short equity with a focus on activistm)

Others to be announced

10:15-11:00 Roundtables

Investors have an opportunity to meet with managers on a less formal basis.

-Orin Kramer, Providence (former chairman of New Jersey Investment Counceil

-Darren Spencer, Russell Investments

Managers

-Scott Reid, One East Partners (Event driven, multi-strategy)

-Dana McGinnis, Mission Fund Management (Master limited partnerships)

Dov Gertzulin, DG Capital Management  (value driven, special situation)

Olga Chernova, Sancus Capital Management (long/short credit)

Dimitri Smolansky, Bleecker Street Capital (global macro)

Ryan Carrier, Nautical Capital Management (systematic commodity strategy/ discretionary commodity strategy)

Naveen Jeereddi, Jeereddi Partners (value, event-oriented)

Brett Nelson, EJF Capital (opportunistic equities and special situation debt)

Steven Persky, Dalton Investments (high yield/ distressed fixed income)
Donald LaGuardia, LR Global (long-only investments in publicly traded companies in frontier markets)

Christine Jurinich, Offit Capital Advisors

Managers

Josh Green, Raven Capital (asset based investment alternative strategy)

Bob Press, Trafalgar Capital (credit and merchant banking)

Greg Racz, Hutchin Hill Capital (multi-disciplinary firm specializin in equity, credit, systematic, quantitative and macro)

Parag Vora, HG Vora Capital (multi-strategy specializin in event driven, distressed, credit and special situations)

Investor Panel:

EnTrust Capital

EIM USA

Kairos Research

Manager Presentations:

SC Fundamental Fund

Risked Revenue Energy Associates

EJF Capital

Highlights of Infovest21 Seminar:

Creating a tailored portfolio with managed accounts and other customized funds of funds solutions

At Infovest21’s “Managed Accounts – Hidden Issues” seminar last week, speakers discussed how managed accounts were shaping the funds of funds industry and serving as a tool for funds of funds to add value to investors.

Large funds of funds firms such as PAAMCO and Lighthouse Partners are investing in underlying managers predominantly or exclusively via managed accounts to differentiate themselves from competitors as well as to actively allocate and hedge risk in their portfolios, says Robert Picard, senior advisor to Navigant Capital Advisors.

“To a certain extent that is what the multi-strategy funds are doing. There is a chief investment officer looking at best ideas within all their pools and allocating opportunistically. They are not all located in the same office but they can access the best managers. You are not getting negative selection. Do they have the expertise and knowledge to actively manage that money, lever and delever and hedge? That is still a question, but I think they’ll get there over time,” says Picard.

If this practice persists, says George Mazin, partner at Dechert, the funds of funds industry may start to look like the long-only industry.

“In the past, managers who wanted to avoid registration would count the number of new clients and keep it under fifteen. Since the new financial regulations have been passed and managers with assets over $150 million will have to register, this constraint on managed accounts, i.e. of capping the number of investors, will go away,” says Mazin.

“It’s possible that in the future, clients with over $25 million to invest will go into a managed account structure and the fund structure may become a semi-retail vehicle for investors with less than $25 million in assets.”

Other innovative structures include the “fund of one” where large pension funds like to own their structure which runs pari-passu to the manager’s other fund. It can be customized to what the investor wants in his portfolio. “In these cases, agreements exist with the underlying managers that if we [the manager of the fund of one] are fired, the assets are then transferred to another manager appointed to take over. That gives investors some comfort that they have control over their investments,” adds another speaker who wanted to remain anonymous.

Institutional investor demand for managed account structures is driven by the perception of safety and more importantly, of obtaining a more customized allocation tailored to the individual investor.

“Some investors don’t care whether these products [funds of managed accounts] are underperforming relative to traditional funds of funds. They are happy to leave money on the table in order to get the managed account, more hedged exposure and more careful allocation,” adds Picard.

“From what I’ve seen, investors are not asking for individual managed accounts at the manager level. In the case of a few of our clients, they opted to select a couple of hedge fund managers and invest in them directly but have us, a fund of funds,  monitor and analyze their portfolios. Also, we have seen the trend with other clients who had collapsed their funds of funds investments, went direct, and realized that they cannot do that with limited staff,” says the anonymous speaker who is a fund of funds.

However, not all investors are equipped to handle the infrastructure needs of managed accounts, so they continue to outsource that function to funds of funds, he added.

When asked what percentage managed accounts would represent out of the total hedge fund industry in five years, the speakers gave ranges of between 25% and 30%.

For further information, contact:

Lois Peltz
Infovest21
212 686 6440