Press Release

Centaurus Capital’s Investment Team to join Fortress

New Global Equity Strategy branded Fortress-Centaurus Global Strategy

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fortress Investment Group (NYSE:FIG) today announced that the global investment team of Centaurus Capital will join the firm’s Liquid Markets business. The team is led by CIO Randy Freeman and will be rebranded as the Fortress-Centaurus Global Strategy. The business will operate out of Fortress’s offices in Hong Kong, London, and New York, and will immediately transition to Fortress’s technology, infrastructure and marketing platforms. The addition will further diversify Fortress’s Liquid Markets business, adding a seasoned team with 20 years of experience in the fast growing global equity long-short and event-driven space.

Centaurus Capital was co-founded by Randy Freeman and Bernard Oppetit in 2000 and has been at the forefront of global event-driven investing, with assets under management peaking at nearly $5 billion in 2007, before returning external money in 2013. The team now manages a global opportunistic fund, specializing in long-short and event-driven equity strategies, with a geographical focus on Europe, Asia Pacific and the Emerging Markets.

“We are delighted to join Fortress and have the support to manage third-party capital under our flagship strategy,” said CIO Randy Freeman. “Our goal in seeking a partner was to gain world class infrastructure, client relationships, and business management so that our investment team can focus on what we do best…investing. In Fortress, we have found the ideal partner. The global event-driven space is very attractive and we look forward to delivering consistent risk-adjusted absolute returns to our investors.”

"The Centaurus investment team led by Randy has performed very well for many years. I am confident that they will thrive within Fortress, and I intend to remain a substantial investor for the long term," said Bernard Oppetit.

“We are committed to steady growth and diversification of our business by engaging best-in-class managers with scalable strategies in areas with long-term investment opportunity,” said Stu Bohart, President of Fortress Liquid Markets. “The addition of Randy and the Centaurus team allows us to deepen our relationships with current Fortress investors while also adding significant new investment skill and insight to our research process.”

Fortress’s Liquid Markets business had approximately $7.7 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2014, managed across four primary strategies—Fortress Macro, Fortress Asia Macro, Fortress Partners Funds, and Fortress Convex Asia. Fortress plans to add one or two new funds per year to its internal Liquid Markets platform, including new teams that may be acquired or seeded by Fortress. The company also recently introduced an affiliated manager platform, through which Fortress’s Liquid Markets business will take an economic interest in high potential start-up and established managers, and provide a fee-for-services model for managers seeking to leverage Fortress’s technology, infrastructure and client relationships. This two pronged strategy for growth and diversification allows Fortress to work with managers who prefer to have the full resources of Fortress as an internal team while also partnering with external teams who prefer to remain independent with Fortress as a minority shareholder.

About Fortress

Fortress Investment Group LLC is a leading, highly diversified global investment firm with approximately $62.5 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2014. Founded in 1998, Fortress manages assets on behalf of over 1,500 institutional clients and private investors worldwide across a range of private equity, credit, liquid hedge funds and traditional asset management strategies. Fortress is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: FIG). For additional information, please visit www.fortress.com.

 

Fortress Investment Group LLC
Gordon E. Runté, 212-798-6082

Source: Fortress Investment Group LLC