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Varden Pacific currently manages over $250 million USD and for the full-year 2012 the flagship Varden Pacific Opportunity strategy returned +29.1% net of fees. The firm was set-up by Shawn Stoval, (former Head of Morgan Stanley’s North American Structured Credit Client Trading Group), Dennis Lin (former Global Head of USD Interest Rate Swap Trading at Credit Suisse) and Brad Scelfo (a former Senior Director within the structured and derivative-based product groups at Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital). Since inception Varden Pacific’s sole focus has been dedicated to capitalizing on international credit opportunities and residual dislocations within the structured credit markets, and specifically within the corporate-backed structured credit space.

Last year, the flagship Varden Pacific Opportunity Fund delivered a net return to investors of +29.1% and year-to-date through April the strategy is up an estimated +3.4% net of fees.

The firm was founded by a group of seasoned Wall Street professionals with deep, long-running expertise in structured and derivative-based assets. Varden Pacific manages assets in hedge fund and separately managed account structures, and is registered with the SEC.

According to Varden Pacific’s COO and co-founder Dennis Lin, the global market for corporate-backed structured credit not only has lower competition, but also has identifiable structural characteristics that make it notably more attractive than the broader credit space.

“Regulatory catalysts, changes in rating agency methodology and new mark-to-market rules are pressuring holders to sell these assets for non-economic reasons. With few product experts globally and significant barriers to entry, a material supply/demand imbalance has occurred. We look to utilize our product and industry expertise to identify these "orphaned" assets, in turn providing our investors attractive returns on a risk-adjusted basis." said Lin.

“Varden Pacific focus is on purchasing highly structured/customized structured credit assets that are fundamentally sound, yet trade cheap relative to the risk inherent in the structure and collateral. This opportunistic approach to investing, capitalizing on non-economic market dislocations that have resulted from the events of the last five years, allows us to target double digit net returns utilizing little financial leverage and with light correlation to equities, bond and interest rate markets.” stated Varden Pacific co-founder and Chief Investment Officer Shawn Stoval.

Lars Bjoergerd, Managing Director, MCAM Group commented, “We are currently seeing significant demand among international investors for non-correlated strategies such as structured credit. There are only a handful of teams globally with an as proven, deep expertise and success in investing in the corporate-backed structured credit space as Varden Pacific, and we are exceptionally pleased to be working with Shawn and the rest of the team in growing their international asset base by raising capital for the strategy from allocators in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”

Press release

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