Halcyon Asset Management

Halcyon Asset Management - Hedge Fund Press Bio

The following piece on Halcyon Asset Management is being published as part of our daily effort to track hedge fund events in the industry. To review other hedge fund related announcements please see our Hedge Fund Tracker Tool.
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Resource #1: Look who's sitting atop one sector of the hedge-fund world.

Joe Wolnick, 53, the head of Halcyon Asset Management's $850 million Asset Backed Securities hedge fund, is up 3 percent through Sept. 30, making him one of the only ABS funds with a positive return through the first three quarters of 2008.

The top-of-the-heap position is especially sweet for Wolnick - who started running his first hedge fund just three years ago after a career spent working as a credit risk executive in the distressed consumer and corporate debt business - because he relishes using his street smarts and gut instincts to beat his Ivy League rivals at other firms.

Wolnick, who proudly trumpets his 1977 graduation from Central Connecticut State University on Halcyon's Web site, held back from buying senior subprime mortgage-backed securities earlier this year despite their high yield. The trader, people familiar with his thinking say, expected the bonds to fall from their lofty prices in the high-60-percent and low-70-percent range.

While others were buying, Wolnick was out soliciting investor cash, waiting for prices to drop and his chance to pounce. This summer, Wolnick beat out 70 other funds to manage a piece of California's San Bernadino pension fund.

At that point, the market started to notice Wolnick.

By September, prices indeed came down below 50 and Wolnick started buying. Although just a portion of his portfolio, the index of senior tranche of subprime MBS closed the month at 52.08, helped him achieve his 3 percent gain and his prized place atop the heap.

In contrast, two of the most successful hedge-fund traders of recent years, Michael Novogratz and his protegeAdam Levinson, who run Fortress Investment Group's $9 billion Drawbridge Global Macro fund, which also invests in asset-backed securities, find themselves in an unusual spot - down 13.76 percent through Sept. 30. Read More...

Resource #2: The vice chairman and chief investment officer of hedge fund Halcyon Asset Management has been forced out. The move reportedly follows major redemptions from institutional investors. According to an investor letter dated Tuesday and obtained by The New York Post, Steve Mandis has left the firm, "effective immediately."

While the letter gave no reason for his departure, FINalternatives has learned that the subsidiary of the $12 billion hedge fund run by Mandis has been performing poorly and that some of the fund’s largest investors are pulling their money.

One source told FINalternatives that it was an “unceremonious” departure. “They are being hit with large redemptions,” said the source. Halcyon declined to comment on the matter.

The subsidiary, Halcyon Structured Asset Management, was co-founded by Mandis in 2004. Mandis also served on the boards and risk management committees of Halcyon and all of its affiliates, except for Halcyon Real Estate Investors.

Prior to joining Halcyon, Mandis worked at Goldman Sachs, where he served as a portfolio manager in the firm’s Special Situations Investing Group, a multi-billion dollar proprietary investing area within Goldman Sachs' Fixed Income Division. Read more...

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