February 17, 2007
FIG Flags
Fortress Investment Group went public on February 9th and I noticed it on my new lows list today. Here’s their Prospectus if you haven’t already read it. (Reading the S-1 is the first thing you should do if you want to understand a business.) Some pundits think their listing marks a top for the “alternative investment” business, to which I say, nah, probably not.
Fortress Investment Group is a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $29.9 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2006. Fortress was founded in 1998 as an asset-based investment management firm with a fundamental philosophy premised on its alignment of interests with the investors in its funds. Fortress raises, invests and manages private equity funds, hedge funds and publicly traded alternative investment vehicles.
February 17th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Agree that it probably won’t mark the top for them, but equity holders have a similar payoff profile to investors of Fortress products. While equity holders benefit in the sense that downside is more limited than an investor of their products, the equity was priced at a significant premium (off the top of my head, wasn’t it priced at a PE of over 50?!).