CIN.L Regulatory News (CIN)

8 Nov 2006 07:00

City Of London Group PLC08 November 2006 RELEASED ON BEHALF OF:CITY OF LONDON GROUP PLC November 8, 2006 CITY OF LONDON GROUP APPLIES FOR FSA AUTHORISATION FOR SUBSIDIARY CITY OF LONDON FINANCIAL SERVICES LTD • MOU Signed With Experienced Asset Management Team • Team Led By Former Global Chief Investment Officer Of Credit Suisse Private Banking • Asia And Europe Enhanced Value Arbitrage Fund Planned • COLG To Make Placing At 78p Per Share Partly To Meet Set-Up Costs City of London Group Plc (COLG) has appointed six directors to its dormantsubsidiary, City of London Financial Services Limited (COLFS), which is applyingto the UK Financial Services Authority for authorisation. The Group announcedin August that it was changing industry sector from Media to General Financialwith its main business now mostly involved in asset management. An MOU has been signed with a team of experienced hedge fund managers which,trading as Hume Capital, is to launch an Asia and Europe Enhanced ValueArbitrage Fund. The team is headed by: Nitin Parekh, COLFS Chief Executive, an Oxford PPE graduate, was Global ChiefInvestment Officer of Credit Suisse Private Banking from 2002-2004 where he wasresponsible for all discretionary assets of the bank. He successfully foundedPMA Capital Management, the premier hedge fund investing in Non-Japan Asia,which was sold earlier this year. Mr. Parekh, with 15 years of investmentexperience, has managed a team of some 60 investment professionals across allasset classes. He was Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Asset Management inHong Kong for two years and worked for CSFB in Hong Kong for five years buildingthe Asian franchise. He began his career at the Royal Bank of Scotland in1990 before leaving four years later to take up an appointment as Head ofResearch with a Hong Kong stockbroker. His colleagues are: Tim Bassett, fund manager, a chartered accountant with banking experience gainedat Robert Fleming. He joined Tokai Bank Europe in 1994 and developed riskmanagement and pricing models in all areas of the bank's large proprietaryoperations. He subsequently transferred to the arbitrage and derivativesdivision and has a full range of cross-product knowledge. He moved to EriswellCapital in 2002, successfully managing an enhanced value portfolio in Europe andAsia. Mark Baker, risk management controller, is a mathematics graduate from YorkUniversity who worked for Citibank as a currency options analyst. He moved toFirst Chicago to build a new equity derivatives business and later to Tokai BankEurope arbitrage division for five years specializing in volatility arbitrage,although his involvement included all areas of equity arbitrage. In 2002 hehelped found Eriswell Capital and continued his derivatives specialisation alongwith additional day to day risk management responsibilities. David Sullivan, research and marketing, has worked in the City for 30 yearsspecialising for more than half this time in the Tiger economies of Asia. Hehas been Director of Sales for a number of stockbroking firms in the region.Acting as a key conduit between the investment industry and the companiestargeted for investment, he has in-depth understanding of the complex structureand operation of many corporations in his specialist area. COLG has appointed David Walton Masters as chairman of COLFS. Mr. WaltonMasters is a non-executive Board member of COLG and has both an extensive Cityand an international asset management background. This has included 18 yearsat Phillips and Drew where he was Partner in charge of the InternationalDepartment and Chief Executive of each of County Natwest Securities, CoastSecurities, a Kuwaiti asset management company and Hong Kong based Morning StarInvestment Management. Another COLG main Board member becoming a director of COLFS is Henry Lafferty,an experienced accountant well versed in all aspects of corporate finance andfinancial management, who joins John Greenhalgh, managing director of COLG, theexisting COLFS director. COLG is making a small placement of 627,935 shares at 78p partly to meet set-upcosts. Two directors of Group, David Walton Masters and Henry Lafferty, haveagreed to subscribe to the placing taking up 100,000 shares and 50,000 sharesrespectively (ex interim dividend). Further details of the above arrangements plus an incentive share scheme will begiven as and when definitive agreements have been signed. Contact:John Greenhalgh Chairman City of London Group Plc. Tel: 020-7628-5518Peter Doye Deputy Chairman City of London Group Plc. M: 07767 445390 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange