West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net) – Only one year after Citigroup shelled out $800 million for Old Lane Partners, investors are looking for a way out of the troubled hedge fund.
The fund’s founder, Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pandit, is now forced to look at a restructuring or a complete closing of the fund, just days before he is set to make a presentation to investors convincing them he is the right man to lead the company.
“We are in the process of restructuring Old Lane. Its business and its people continue to be valuable to us,” said Jon Diat, a Citigroup spokesman. “We are confident that we can realize that value over time."
In March, following a disappointing year resulting from the credit crisis, Old Lane informed investors that they may redeem their money due to a clause in the investment agreement being breached.
The clause stated that if three of the fund’s six managers left the fund, investors could start withdrawing their cash. This happened when Pandit, along with co-founders John Havens and Brian Leach left the hedge fund to pursue other positions within Citi. This past Friday, the bank announced that investors could completely withdraw from the fund by July 31st.
“In April 2008, substantially all unaffiliated investors had notified Old Lane of their intention to redeem,” Citi said in the filing. The rush for redemptions left the fund with only $1.5 billion in assets, less than a year after it had over $4.5 billion in AUM.
Julie Scuderi
Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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