Carador Plc – Change of Investment Manager
16 June 2008
Carador Plc (“Carador” or the “Company”)
Re: Change of Investment Manager
The Board of Directors of Carador today announce that, with effect from midnight on 13 June 2008, GSO Capital Partners International LLP, a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group LP (“GSO/Blackstone”) has been appointed in place of Washington Square Investment Management Limited (“Washington Square”) as Investment Manager of the Company. This follows the transfer of the key executives of Washington Square with responsibility for the portfolio of the Company (being Miguel Ramos-Fuentenebro, Carolyn Aitchison, Poh-Heng Tan, Steve Basirdin and Marisa Virseda) to GSO/Blackstone.
GSO/Blackstone has been appointed pursuant to a Novation Agreement dated 13 June 2008 to the existing investment management agreement between the Company, Washington Square and GSO/Blackstone. Accordingly, the new investment management arrangement between the Company and GSO/Blackstone will continue on identical terms.
This agreement will enable Carador to benefit from the experience and continuity of the Washington Square team and enhance its ability to take full advantage of the opportunities currently present in the structured credit market by leveraging the further skills and opportunities available through GSO/Blackstone’s global investment management and financial advisory operations.
Commenting on the agreement, Werner Schwanberg, Chairman of Carador, said:
“The Board is delighted that the productive and fruitful relationship enjoyed with Miguel Ramos- Fuentenebro and his team is set to continue following their transfer to GSO. This transaction enables Carador’s investment management team to benefit from the broader access to credit market opportunities and analysis that the scale of GSO/Blackstone’s operations can provide whilst continuing to implement what has proved to be an extremely successful investment strategy to date.”
Bennett Goodman, Founder of GSO Capital Partners LP , said:
“We are very pleased to have the Washington Square team join us and continue their involvement in the management of Carador. We believe the combination of GSO/Blackstone’s global credit platform with the structured products knowledge and expertise of the professionals from Washington Square will uniquely position us to source and evaluate attractive opportunities in CLO related securities”.
Enquiries:
For further information, please contact::
Carador Plc Contact:
Michaela Hopkins, The Millbrook Partnership: +44 (0) 20 7520 9455
GSO/BX Contact:
John Ford, The Blackstone Group +1 212- 583-5559
Notes to Editors
About Carador Plc
Carador is a closed-ended limited liability investment company which was incorporated under the laws of Ireland on 20 February 2006 and is authorised by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority. It is the first London Stock Exchange diversified cash flow CDO equity fund. Carador’s investment objective is to produce attractive and stable returns with low volatility compared to equity markets by investing in a diversified portfolio of equity and mezzanine tranches of CDOs.
Trading in Carador’s Euro listed shares commenced on the London Stock Exchange commenced on 12 April 2006. Carador and Washington Square won the “Investor of the Year Award” at the Institutional Investor’s Global Derivatives and Securitization Awards held in London in November 2007
Carador invests in cashflow CDO transactions and seeks to achieve diversification across asset class, geography, manager, and maturity profile. Carador’s portfolio of CDO investments has been actively managed by Washington Square to date in order to minimise default risk and potential loss through comprehensive credit analysis and use of Washington Square’s proprietary risk management systems which are designed to quantify underlying asset correlation and CDO structural risk. Washington Square analysed all transactions at the underlying portfolio level, identifying any concentration in terms of issuer, sector, geography and maturity profile. Its analysis also takes into consideration the correlation among all the different underlying securities to avoid concentrations of risk.
For further information, please visit www.carador.co.uk
About Washington Square Investment Management Ltd
Washington Square is a credit focused, independent asset manager, established in February 2003. It is registered as a limited liability company in England and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Washington Square will continue to manage the five remaining funds within its portfolio following the transfer of Carador’s investment management to GSO/Blackstone.
For more information, please visit www.wsqim.com
About The Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group L.P. is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services. Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt vehicles, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group L.P. also provides various financial advisory services, including corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services.
For further information, please visit www.blackstone.com