Ramius LLC (“Ramius”), the global investment management business of Cowen Group, Inc. (“Cowen”) (Nasdaq: COWN), today announced a partnership to launch Quadratic Capital’s options-based, fundamental global macro strategy. Quadratic Capital employs liquid options and swaptions across asset classes and seeks to deliver an absolute return, fundamental global macro strategy with low volatility and defined risk. Quadratic Capital is led by Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Nancy Davis. Ms. Davis spent ten years at Goldman Sachs, including seven as a trader for the proprietary group. She was also a portfolio manager at Highbridge Capital Management, where she managed $500 million of capital, and was the Director of Derivatives at AllianceBernstein. Her partner, David Seif, is the former Economist at Paulson & Co. and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Peter A. Cohen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cowen Group, said, “We are excited that Nancy Davis and her team have chosen to join the Ramius platform. Nancy and David offer a unique perspective on world events, and their options-based strategy allows for unique alpha generation in the global macro space. Nancy is a rising star whom we are proud to present to our investors.”
“This partnership allows Quadratic to benefit from Ramius’ institutional halo, making Quadratic a more competitive emerging fund,” said Ms. Davis. “The operational platform allows the portfolio team to focus on investing. We look forward to working with Ramius to provide investors with our innovative, low volatility, absolute return strategy.”
“Quadratic reinforces our goal of sourcing talented investment professionals with the ability to generate alpha in today’s global investment climate,” said Jeffrey M. Solomon, President of Cowen Group. “Our focus will continue to be to grow the Ramius business by identifying and pursuing scalable managers that we feel can provide our clients with differentiated returns over the long term.”
About Ramius LLC
Ramius is an alternative investment platform offering innovative alpha generating products and solutions across the liquidity spectrum to institutional and private clients. Founded in 1994, the firm offers investors access to strategies to meet their unique needs including small-cap activism, healthcare royalties, customized solutions, event driven equity, real estate, long/short credit and managed futures. Ramius attracts talented in-house and affiliated investment teams and provides them with institutional infrastructure, proven sales and marketing and industry know how. Ramius is also an industry leader in the construction of liquid alternative strategies, including the recently launched Ramius Event Driven Equity Fund (Ticker: REDIX/REDAX), the Ramius Hedged Alpha Fund (Ticker: RDRIX/RDRAX) and the State Street/Ramius Managed Futures Strategy Fund (Ticker: RTSRX/RTSIX). The firm is committed to the success of its global investor base and invests a significant portion of firm capital alongside clients. Ramius manages $11.6 billion in assets as of July 1, 2014, and is part of Cowen Group.
About Quadratic Capital
Quadratic is an innovative, woman-owned investment advisory firm focused on Global Macro investing. Quadratic employs a risk-based approach to portfolio construction, investing exclusively in liquid options and swaptions across FX, rates, equities, commodities, and credit. The firm believes options enable it to manage risk more effectively and to add additional alpha to our macro themes by exploiting mispricings in volatility markets.
About Cowen Group, Inc.
Cowen Group, Inc. is a diversified financial services firm and, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, provides alternative asset management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services through its two business segments: Ramius and its affiliates make up the Company’s alternative investment segment, while Cowen and Company and its affiliates make up the Company’s broker-dealer segment. Ramius provides alternative asset management solutions to a global client base and manages a significant portion of Cowen’s proprietary capital. Cowen and Company and its affiliates offer industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research and a sales and trading platform for institutional investors. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices worldwide.
