Duncan Capital Group is preparing to launch its second hedge fund, DC Opportunity Fund I LLC.
The new fund, which is the second fund ma Duncan Capital Group is preparing to launch its second hedge fund, DC Opportunity Fund I LLC. The new fund, which is the second fund managed by DC Asset Management LLC (the asset management arm of Duncan Capital Group) will focus on making private investments in public equities (PIPEs) and debt securities of small cap companies. Duncan Capital Group is a privately-owned merchant bank based in New York providing investment advisory and asset management services for clients. Duncan Capital Group’s participation in the PIPEs market is led by a group of senior professionals who have over 100 years of investment banking and brokerage experience and is supported by a growing staff of approximately 25 professionals. Duncan Capital Group professionals have been involved in over 400 public offerings and private placements and have helped complete over USD 40 billion in public and private capital raising and advisory assignments. Duncan Capital Group expects to participate in PIPE transactions sourced by a number of placement agents and other financial intermediaries whom it works closely with, including Duncan Capital LLC, an NASD registered broker-dealer. Duncan Capital LLC is currently ranked 7th in terms of placements of PIPEs in fiscal 2004. Duncan Capital Group’s first fund has delivered an average annualized net return of approximately 51% (since its October 2002 inception) in the small capitalisation PIPE space. The firm stated: “The expected return profile of these funds are poised to deliver results that are not correlated with most other hedge fund styles, potentially providing investors with sound diversification benefits while achieving high returns at reduced levels of risk.” DC Asset Management LLC is headed by its President, Richard Smithline, who has over 20 years of diversified Wall Street experience as an investor, investment banker and corporate and securities attorney. Smithline was previously a partner at Scoggin Capital Management, an event-driven, special situations hedge fund based in New York. Prior to joining Scoggin, hewas a Managing Director at Wasserstein Perella & Co. and its successor Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. While at Wasserstein Perella, he worked on numerous debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, as well as restructuring transactions. Prior to joining Wasserstein, he was a corporate and securities partner at the law firm Shea & Gould. DC Asset Management recently hired Chris Schuldberg as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Schuldberg is heading the marketing effort at DC Asset Management, focusing on capital raising and product development. Most recently, Schuldberg spent over two years at Framework Investment Group as Vice President of Marketing. He has more than 11 years of marketing experience across a broad range of alternative investments. The expected launch date of the new fund is 1 June 2004.
