An inglorious anniversary

A party of anxious Fortress investors

Nobody else seems to have noticed, but Saturday marked the first anniversary of the listing of Fortress Investment Group. FIG was the first hedge-fund/private-equity group listed in the US, and priced at $18.50; back in the days when sub-prime meant finding gristle in a filet at Smith & Wollensky, it opened at $35, traded up to $37—still an all-time high—and closed at $31.

So how’s that worked out so far?

Not well. FIG closed Friday at $13.58. Which, to be fair, is an almost 30 percent gain over the $10.53 it hit on Jan. 22.

Anyway, special congratulations to Aircastle Ltd (AYR), a listed aircraft leasing company that dumped 11 million FIG shares at $30.80 on Oct. 10 last year for proceeds of $338.8 million.

Noted with interest: According to the somewhat less than entirely reliable Yahoo! Finance, Fortress Investment Holdings LLC owns more than half of AYR’s outstanding stock. Another major AYR holder, with 1 million shares reported that very same Oct. 10 2007, is one Wesley R. Edens. Curiously enough, or not, the very same name as FIG’s chief executive.

Comments

[Mike]

AYR was a private equity investment of FIG.