Stanfield Capital Partners is evaluating cutting ties to its hedge fund, leaving only its collateralized loan obligation business. It also recently parted ways from its structured investment vehicle operation Ceres Capital, in which it acquired majority ownership in 2002.
The hedge fund group under Chris Pucillo, partner, head of hedge fund strategies, could be separating from Stanfield, but no time frame has been set, one market source said. Negotiations between Pucillo, Stanfield and XL Capital, which holds a minority stake in the firm, are ongoing. "The hedge fund is a very distinct business from our other operations and we have been working to more clearly define the line between it and our other core businesses," a spokesman said. "We continue to evaluate ownership structure, but nothing has been finalized." Calls and emails to Pucillo were not returned. A call and email to Dan Baldwin, Stanfield managing partner and ceo, was referred to the spokesman.
It is unclear what triggered all of this movement now. The spokesman said "the firm regularly reviews its organizational and ownership structure to ensure we are optimizing opportunities to further increase returns for investors and fully align the interests of our portfolio managers with our clients, but clearly we don't pursue every move we evaluate."
The CLO business and hedge fund businesses have their own analysts and staffs and have become so separate that in January the two even moved onto separate floors in their 430 Park Avenue office building. The CLO business is managed by Baldwin, Stephen Alfieri and Christopher Jansen. A call to Brian O'Hara, president and ceo of XL Capital, was referred to a spokeswoman, who declined comment.
Stanfield separated from Ceres a few weeks ago. When Stanfield acquired a majority ownership of Ceres in 2002 and renamed it Stanfield Global Strategies, the senior management of Stanfield Global Strategies and XL Capital, through one of its subsidiaries, owned equity interests in Stanfield Global Strategies. A few weeks ago Ceres redeemed its shares and took back its original name. Ceres runs high-grade structured investment vehicles including Victoria Finance and Barkley Square and Mica Funding. David Carroll, a co-founder of Ceres, did not return phone calls or emails.
Although some market players had heard rumors the CLO business was up for sale, the spokesman said, "The CLO business is not in the process of being sold." Moody's Investors Service assigned ratings to Stanfield's Daytona CLO on March 23. According to a JPMorgan pipeline sheet, the approximately $567 million portfolio led by Bear Stearns came to market in January. It closed in February. According to its Web site, as of Dec. 31, Stanfield had about $11.2 billion in assets under management.