Bloomberg – Four former employees of Shooter Fund Management LLP, the London investment manager that lost 40 percent last year, are starting their own firm to trade currencies.
Dacharan Capital LLP is looking to raise as much as $200 million, according to the marketing documents obtained by Bloomberg. David Beddington, 32, Shooter’s former director of marketing, declined to comment on the plans by him and former Shooter traders Ari Andricopoulos, Charles Phan and Antti Aitio.
Founded by Mark Shooter in 2004, Shooter Fund lost money last year on equity-index trades. Its foreign-exchange portfolio, which relies on computers to buy and sell contracts, returned 34 percent in 2007 and 10 percent this year through April, according to Dacharan marketing documents.
“It’s clearly not a positive to be associated with the losses, but it won’t be impossible for them to raise cash,” said Patrik Safvenblad, head of hedge-fund research in Stockholm for DnB NOR ASA, Norway’s biggest bank. “They are just going to have to work harder at gaining trust among investors,” said Safvenblad, whose company is based in Oslo.
Other hedge-fund managers hit by losses have sought capital for new endeavors. Nicholas Maounis, whose Amaranth Advisors LLC collapsed under a record $6.6 billion loss in 2006, plans to open Greenwich, Connecticut-based Verition Fund Management LLC later this year with more than $200 million. Daniel Zwirn, the New York-based investor who is shutting down a $4 billion hedge fund because of investor withdrawals, plans to start ZLC Global Investments to focus on companies that have trouble getting financing from other sources.
