Webinar: Creating Reinsurance Firms and Banks - New Permanent Capital Vehicles for Hedge Funds and Fund of Funds

Opalesque, the world's largest subscription-based publisher on alternative investments, hosts an A SQUARE webinar with leading film financing experts on June 12, 2008 at 10:00:00 (EST) (16:00 CET).

2008-05-14, Opalesque Ltd

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Posted by Nisha 189 days ago (1)
Category: Financial | Tags: webinar hedge funds

 Exclusive Webinar for Hedge Fund Founders and Partners only
 Why Lock-Ups and Closed End Funds don't work
 Creating a re-insurer or bank can provide significant amounts of permanent capital without a proportionate increase in risk
 Proven Models: Learn from the successes of Buffett and Einhorn
 Expert Speaker: Joe Taussig's expertise includes the generation of billions of dollars of permanent capital for hedge fund and FoHF managers

Warren Buffett started a hedge fund in 1956. Working out of his bedroom with $5,000 of his own and $100,000 from family and friends, he charged no management fee, but he did charge a 25% performance fee on returns in excess of 6%. 13 years later, after delivering compounded returns of roughly 30% (net of fees and expenses), he had approximately $100 million in AuM, 25% of which was his. He was very successful by any standard in today’s hedge fund industry.

Why Warren Buffett gave up his very successful hedge fund
Despite that success, Buffett quit cold turkey - to go into reinsurance and banking (many years later, regulators forced him to give up control of one or the other and he sold the bank). Armed with permanent capital from the reinsurance and banking businesses, a modest amount of very low cost leverage whose availability was independent of asset values, and market multiples on performance, Buffett became even more successful than he ever was in the hedge fund business (his investors did pretty well too).

Why Lock-Ups and Closed End Funds don't work
Modern efforts to secure permanent capital using lock ups or closed end funds have not been very successful. Resistance to lock ups is fierce and closed end funds generally end up selling at a discount to NAV and today, managers usually have to commit to repurchasing shares if the discount exceeds a certain amount (begging the question of whether it really is permanent capital) in order to complete the initial offering.

Learn from Success:
Drawing on Buffet’s blueprint 35 years earlier, David Einhorn and a number of investors in Greenlight Capital funded Greenlight Capital Re with $212 million in 2004. Einhorn manages all of the reinsurer’s investable assets. In May of 2007, Lehman Brothers and UBS took Greenlight Capital Re public (symbol – GLRE). Assets currently exceed $1 billion and much like Buffett, Einhorn benefits from managing the permanent capital provided by the combination of equity capital and premium generated reserves.

Despite a drop in the insurance indices of roughly 25% since its IPO, GLRE trades roughly 146,000 shares per day at a premium to book value (and very close to its IPO price of $19). Investors in GLRE have done better than if they had invested in the Greenlight Capital funds over the same period of time and also benefit from daily liquidity. Relative to their returns from investing in the Greenlight funds, UK and U.S. taxable investors in GLRE also benefit from taper relief in the UK and the elimination of annual K-1s and lower capital gains rates in the U.S.

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 and employees from the hedge fund or FoHF management company may also participate.

Our panel:
Joe Taussig of First International Capital participated in the creation of Greenlight Capital Re and will conduct the Webinar. Over the years, he has partnered with a number of other hedge fund and FoHF managers to create reinsurers and banks, each of which allocates its investable assets to its sponsoring hedge fund or FoHF manager. Four or five of these reinsurers and banks are expected to offer their shares to the public in the next 12 months, generating billions of dollars in permanent capital for their sponsoring hedge fund and FoHF managers and superior returns (without a proportionate increase in risk) for the investors.

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.

Click here to logon or register for this Webinar: http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=static&and=webinar

About Opalesque:

Opalesque leads the finance media space for its in-depth and innovative products. Since February 2003, Opalesque is publishing Alternative Market Briefing, the premium news service on hedge funds and alternatives. The launch of these Briefings 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 360,000 industry professionals in over 100 countries

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.

About Opalesque publications:

Alternative Market Briefing:

A daily newsletter on the global hedge fund industry, highly praised for its completeness and timely delivery of the most important daily news for professionals dealing with hedge funds. Alternative Market Briefing offers both a quick overview and in-depth coverage. Subscribers can also access the industry’s largest news archive ( 26,000+ articles ) on hedge funds and related topics.

A SQUARE:

Opalesque A SQUARE = Alternative Alternatives is the first web publication, globally, that is dedicated exclusively to alternative investments. A SQUARE's weekly selection feature unique investment opportunities that bear virtually no correlation to the main stream hedge fund strategies and/or distinguish themselves by virtue of their "alternative" motive - social, behavioural, natural resources, sustainable /environment related investing.

With its "research that reveals" approach, fast facts and investment oriented analysis, A SQUARE offers diversification and complementary ideas for: private, high net-worth and institutional investors, pension funds and endowments, portfolio and hedge funds managers.

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Delivers three times a week a global perspective/overview on all major markets, including Equity Indices, Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities. Opalesque Technical Research is unique compared to most available research which is fundamental in nature, and not technically (chart) oriented.

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In an Opalesque Roundtable, we unite some of the leading hedge fund managers (single and multi strategy managers) as well as representatives of the local investor base (institutions, fund of funds, advisers) to gain unique insights into the specific idiosyncrasies and developments, the issues and advantages of individual global hedge fund centers.

No matter if you are a hedge fund investor looking for new talent, a hedge fund interested in diversifying your investor base or a service provider looking for new clients, you will get to know some of the leading heads of each hedge fund center and find invaluable information and intelligence right on your desk, without any travel involved.

For more information, please go to www.opalesque.com.