Insana upgrades, from Fort Lee to Scamford

[UPDATED Aug. 12] The network reported Friday afternoon the demise of Ron Insana’s excellent adventure in fund of hedge funds management. Citing a letter to investors, reporter Melissa Lee said that Insana will shutter Insana Capital Partners LP to join Steven Cohen’s Scamford, Conn.-based SAC Capital Advisors LLC as a managing director.  According to an SEC Form ADV* filed Jun. 12, ICP had $116.3 million under management, all in its Legends Fund.

NakedShorts’ Wish List (email to the grinning idiot at right; usual Judy Miller confidentiality agreement and free lifetime subscription for any and all contributions):

• A copy of the investor letter;
• Copies of the short, but doubtless perfectly-formed, track record; and
• A copy of Insana’s SAC employment agreement, specifically the section(s) relating to hormone treatments.

[The requested documents are now available here. Thanks to You Know Whoyouare.]

Merry japes aside, Insana’s ‘never mind’ moment is not a shock. His plans became public in Oct. 2006, but the fund launched mid-2007, into the teeth of the credit hurricane. That storm has posed challenges of varying intensity for more than a few of the bold-faced names, including SAC Capital Advisors, Renaissance Technologies Corp (unfortunately, not the Medallion bit), Perry Corp, Third Point, Omega Advisors and Icahn Management, to which he reportedly allocated funds.

Legends clipped investors for a 1.5 per cent annual management fee, and allowed sales agents to take 2.5 per cent off the top, ahead of a 24-month lockup (which, in the nature of these things, may well have been waived, and is now both irrelevant and inoperative). Doing the fees/assets math, ICP would have done well to generate $2 million in revenues over the last 12 months, which wouldn’t have left more than a few crumbs on the table after keeping the lights on and paying its elite service providers, including legal counsel Schulte Roth & Zabel and flacks Abernathy McGregor.

Past performance notwithstanding, the good news is that one likely consequence of Insana’s acceptance of Cohen’s shilling will be his termination from the ranks of CNBC co-respondents incessantly cheering Fed rate cuts, economic stimulus and bailouts all round. Cohen just ain’t that big on public profile...which does rather beg the question of how he plans filling Insana’s days.

* Speaking of which, this investment adviser is no longer registered with the SEC and is not required to update its Form ADV. The information shown is for historical purposes and you should not presume it is currently accurate.” At pixel time,the ICP web site claimed, in a statement now seemingly as irrelevant as it is inoperative, that the firm is an SEC registered investment advisor.

Ron Insana Leaves Insana Capital...and CNBC?
TV Newser Aug. 8 2008

Access Wall Street: Starring Ron Insana’s Hedge Fund
by Dennis K. Berman
Deal Journal (WSJ) Jun. 20 2007

Insana Capital Partners  [UPDATE: The website went dark on Aug. 11.]

Ron Insana

Comments

[The Almost Millionaire]

Amazing that name recogination alone does not make you a solid money manager.

[Christopher]

That photo is freakin' me out.