By Tom Cahill Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Stanley Fink , whose investments in trend-following hedge funds lifted Man Group Plc’s assets more than 10-fold in seven years as chief executive officer, is starting a rival to his former employer’s largest fund, AHL. Fink, now CEO of London-based International Standard Asset Management Ltd., said today in a statement he will team with Larry Hite, co-founder of trend-following fund firm Mint Investment Management, to start ISAM Systematic in April. Man Group’s 1984 investment in Mint started the London- based company’s transformation from a 200-year-old sugar broker into the largest listed hedge-fund firm. Man acquired AHL, which accounts for about $21 billion, or roughly half of Man Group’s assets, for the firm in stages starting in 1989, while Fink was a director. “It’s a more competitive business that it was then but there’s also a whole lot more money in it,” said Sol Waksman , president and founder of Fairfield, Iowa-based BarclayHedge Ltd., which has tracked and invested in the funds for more than two decades and estimates that more than $210 billion is held in similar funds. “If you’ve got a name and can attract some assets because of who you are and post some numbers then you’re on a fast track.” The venture comes after Man AHL Diversified Plc dropped 17 percent in 2009. Winton Futures Fund Ltd. , managed by David Harding , declined 4.6 percent, while BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd.’s $9 billion BlueTrend rose 5.4 percent. The funds use computers to mine price data to predict trends in futures markets. Man’s Stock Slide AHL’s rough patch helped pull Man Group down 23 percent this year. The stock has slid 63 percent Fink since left as chief executive officer on March 31, 2007, handing the helm to Peter Clarke . Fink, 52, left Man Group’s board in July 2008 and joined ISAM as CEO that September. ISAM was founded in 2003 by Roy Sher , a former gold trader at Merrill Lynch & Co. Hite will become a director of ISAM and a shareholder, along with Alex Greyserman and Gilbert Lee , who work with him at Hite Capital Management LLC. He founded New York-based Hite Capital after leaving Mint, according to the statement. ISAM said it will start ISAM Fusion Fund, comprising managed accounts, later in the year. The accounts allow clients to circumvent some of the risk associated with shared investment pools of hedge funds, or funds of hedge funds. To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Cahill in London at tcahill@bloomberg.net
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Stanley Fink to Start Trend Fund in Challenge to Former Employer Man Group
