Midas Medici Group Holdings’ Czech Republic-based CommodityPoint business has acquired the assets of Energy Hedge Fund Center, LLC (EHFC), a web portal and community for clients interested in hedge funds in the energy and commodity sectors.
The acquisition of EHFC by CommodityPoint was officially consummated on 8 June, 2011. EHFC has been historically quite active with approximately 10,000 unique visitors, a community of 1,400+ members and a newsletter with 1,300+ subscribers. Clients include: hedge funds, investment banks, institutional and private investors, energy companies, educational institutions, government, consultants and the media.
"I am pleased to announce the acquisition of assets belonging to EHFC," says Nana Baffour, CEO and Co-Founder of Midas. "For Midas, EHFC represents an opportunity to establish a brand and reputation in the financial community side of the energy and commodities trading sectors. Through our Czech Republic-based CommodityPoint business, we believe we can successfully leverage current products and services into this community and also penetrate the environmental side of energy as well. In addition, utilizsng Midas’ expertise in IT infrastructure and deployment we can impact how the data is managed, stored, delivered and presented in order to substantially enhance the value of our EHFC acquisition."
EHFC drew attention to the interest in energy and commodity funds with its definitive sponsored research on hedge funds in energy in 2004 and the book ‘Energy and Environmental Hedge Funds: The New Investment Paradigm’ (Wiley, 2006). It has continued this research ever since. Principals Gary M Vasey (pictured) and Peter C Fusaro have extensive expertise in energy and energy related market development, risk management and commodities trading, as it relates to energy and ‘green’ energy-related plays. The two have spoken at numerous conferences and given many online seminars. Additionally, they maintain the EHFC Energy Hedge Fund Directory and produced a second report on hedge funds in energy in January 2005. They are also the editors of Energy Hedge, an online newsletter.
"Having co-founded EHFC in 2004 and now leading CommodityPoint as principal analyst, I am intimately familiar with both businesses and believe that it is the perfect time to leverage the strong online community that’s been built over the years at EHFC into the CommodityPoint brand," says Vasey, Managing Director of CommodityPoint. "With record high prices for most commodities and the advent of new commodity exchange traded instruments, the commodities sector has become an attractive and uncorrelated asset class for investors. The resulting increase in demand for data, information and education in the commodity sector creates a substantial opportunity for Midas and CommodityPoint as we seek to expand the services offered at EHFC to meet the growing need for information surrounding these sectors."
