Industry Updates

Alternate asset managers AM Investment Partners and BAM Capital agree to merge

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

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Opalesque Industry Update - Alternative asset managers AM Investment Partners, LLC and BAM Capital, LLC announced today that the firms have agreed in principle to combine in a merger of equals, with each firm contributing its respective portfolios, management teams and infrastructure to the newly combined entity which will be called AM Investment Partners.

The firm will be run by BAM Capital co-founders Ross Berman and Hal Mintz and AM Investment Partners co-founders Mark Friedman and Adam Stern, and will continue to focus primarily on relative value strategies within the volatility asset class. The newly combined entity, whose flagship strategy will be a long volatility product, is anticipated to manage approximately $600 million.

“We have known the co-founders of AM and several of the portfolio managers for years. A combination with them brings forth many powerful synergies,” said Ross Berman. “Among our peers in the volatility space, we admire AM and believe its similar investment philosophy and culture will be a good fit with BAM. There is tremendous potential in leveraging our 17 years of experience building and managing hedge funds as well as the decades of business and investment experience among the professionals of the combined firms.”

“We believe that the core of any volatility strategy is a strong grasp of both macro and micro fundamentals,” added Mark Friedman. “We have had a friendly dialogue with Ross and Hal over the years, and the similarity of our styles and the way we have built our respective companies makes me confident that this merger is the natural next step in further developing our core discipline, which is rooted in identifying idiosyncratic volatility.”

“The central mantra of my trading career is that one can approach relative value investing in options to create a truly uncorrelated return profile,” stated Hal Mintz. “With AM’s investment talent, technology, and world-class infrastructure, we believe that the combined entity will have one of the few ‘institutional’ products that is focused on absolute total returns while maintaining attractive uncorrelated characteristics.”

The completion of the combination is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and third party consents.

About BAM Capital
BAM Capital, LLC and its affiliates (“BAM”) manage two hedge fund complexes and one separate account, which pursue volatility arbitrage strategies. BAM employs a sector-based, bottom-up approach to trade predominantly U.S.-listed equity, index and ETF options and their corresponding underliers. BAM was founded in 2002 by Ross Berman and Hal Mintz.

About AM Investment Partners
AM Investment Partners, LLC (“AM”) manages four master feeder hedge fund structures, which are primarily focused on relative value volatility arbitrage investing. The New York-based alternative asset management company was founded in 2001 by Adam Stern and Mark Friedman. AM also works closely with investors on customized managed accounts that draw on its areas of expertise and offer a variety of return profiles. -PD-

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