Even as court decisions come in regarding TCW's [profile] own sale, the company has continued to make moves, announcing two deals today and filling a new top post.
The first deal is a partnership with Scoggin Capital Management. The joint venture, known as TCW/Scoggin, will be jointly owned by the two companies and run by Jess Ravich, who was just hired as the new group managing director and head of alternative products for TCW.
The other announcement was a straight-up acquisition. TCW has purchased the Special Situations Funds group from Regiment Capital Advisors. Ravich will also be in charge of this business.
Ravich previously worked as a managing director and head of capital markets at Houlihan, Lokey, Howard and Zikin, an international investment bank.
Read all three press releases below.
Company Press Release
JESS RAVICH JOINS TCW AS GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR
AND HEAD OF ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTS
LOS ANGELES – December 3, 2012 – The TCW Group, Inc. (TCW), an international asset-management firm,
announced today that it has appointed Jess M. Ravich, 55, as Group Managing Director and Head of Alternative
Products. Ravich will spearhead the firm’s efforts to further expand its alternative investment platform and will
report directly to TCW President and CEO David Lippman.
“Historically, TCW has always been a diversified asset management firm that has offered investors
a wide variety of investment strategies calibrated to the different objectives of our many clients,” said
Lippman. “Alternative products continue to be an extremely important part of our platform and as we seek to
expand this offering in-house, I can think of nobody more capable than Jess to lead this effort for us. He has the
drive, understanding of the business and the market perspective to help us round out our product suite in this
area. I very much look forward to working with him and warmly welcome him to TCW.”
Most recently Ravich served as a managing director and head of capital markets at Houlihan, Lokey, Howard &
Zukin, Inc., an international investment bank. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Ravich founded Libra Securities
LLC, an investment banking firm serving the middle market, where he served as CEO for 18 years. Ravich
also brings a wealth of experience from Jefferies & Company and Drexel Burnham Lambert where he was an
executive vice president of the fixed income department and a senior vice president, respectively. Ravich is a
graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude, and Harvard Law School,
magna cum laude. Ravich is the chairman of the board of directors for The Cherokee Group, Inc. and ALJ
Regional Holdings, Inc., and serves on the board of directors of Spectrum Group.
“TCW is a venerable firm with a long history of providing its clients with a broad range of innovative, value-
added investment products,” said Ravich. “The opportunity to continue to expand the alternatives business on
what is already an incredibly diverse platform was extremely compelling. I look forward to being part of TCW’s
continued success and growth.”
Company Press Release
TCW TO ACQUIRE THE SPECIAL SITUATIONS FUNDS GROUP FROM
REGIMENT CAPITAL ADVISORS
Acquisition to Expand TCW’s Alternative Investment Offerings
LOS ANGELES – December 3, 2012 – The TCW Group, Inc. (TCW), an international asset management firm,
announced today that it has agreed to acquire the Special Situations Funds group (SSF) from Regiment Capital
Advisors, L.P. (Regiment). The SSF business will report to Jess Ravich, TCW Group Managing Director and
Head of Alternative Products.
The transaction is expected to close by year-end. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“As a diversified asset manager, the acquisition of Regiment’s direct lending business and the team of talented
investment professionals who have managed the SSF business over the past 12 years is a continuation of our
strategy to expand and augment TCW’s capabilities and offerings in the alternatives area,” said David Lippman,
President and CEO of TCW. “We look forward to working with our new colleagues and their impressive roster of
investors, and welcome all of them to the TCW team.”
The SSF business has approximately $2.0 billion in assets and commitments under management and is
overseen by Rick Miller along with six Boston- and New York-based veteran investment professionals, all of
whom will join TCW and continue to manage the funds. The entire SSF investment team will transition to TCW
with their core investment operations and processes intact and will maintain their presence in both Boston and
New York. The initial Special Situations Fund was launched in December 2000 and four subsequent funds have
been raised to date; the most recent, Regiment Capital Special Situations Fund V, closed on July 1, 2011.
“We are extremely pleased to be bringing in such a high-caliber team of investment professionals who have
an outstanding 12-year track record of delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns to their investors,” said
Ravich. “Their strict investment discipline, dedication to intensive research and rigorous adherence to risk
management make the addition of this strategy a perfect complement to the top-notch line-up of investment
offerings our clients have come to expect from TCW.”
“We are very excited to join forces with TCW as a key component of their growing alternatives platform and
become part of an institution that is known world-wide for its dedication to investment excellence and client
service,” said Rick Miller, who will become a Group Managing Director of Direct Lending at TCW upon the
closing of the transaction. “As part of TCW, we will be well-positioned to continue delivering our middle market
direct lending strategy to our existing investors and, in the future, to TCW’s global network of clients. We look
forward to this new chapter in our business.”
Company Press Release
TCW PARTNERS WITH SCOGGIN CAPITAL
TO OFFER NEW STRATEGIES
Premier Hedge Fund Investment Team to Partner with TCW
TCW/Scoggin Will Manage Distressed and Event-Driven Alternative Strategies
LOS ANGELES – December 3, 2012 – The TCW Group, Inc. (TCW), an international asset
management firm, and Scoggin Capital Management, which consists of its two affiliated investment
advisors, Scoggin LLC and Old Bellows Partners (“Scoggin”), announced today that they have formed
TCW/Scoggin LLC (“TCW/Scoggin”) to manage distressed and event-driven alternative investment
strategies. TCW/Scoggin will be jointly owned by TCW and Scoggin. TCW is a diversified asset
management firm and TCW/Scoggin further expands TCW’s alternative investment platform. Scoggin will
be responsible for the day-to-day operations and all investment decisions of TCW/Scoggin. Jess Ravich,
Group Managing Director and Head of Alternative Products at TCW, will oversee TCW/Scoggin.
Founded in 1988, Scoggin is a global investment manager of event-driven strategies, advising private
investment funds that invest in equities and international and domestic distressed credit. Scoggin
presently advises two private investment fund complexes with assets of approximately $1.5 billion. The
partners of Scoggin will continue to manage these funds with no change in strategy or ownership. TCW/
Scoggin will allow both TCW and Scoggin to leverage their respective capabilities and enhance the
opportunity set for the clients of both firms.
“This new relationship brings to TCW an accomplished and respected team of investors with an
outstanding track record that spans 24 years,” said David Lippman, President and Chief Executive Officer
of TCW. “Like TCW, Scoggin made its mark as a research-intensive firm that takes a bottom-up approach
to investing and has a strong emphasis on risk management.”
Under the agreement, Scoggin co-founders, Craig Effron and Curtis Schenker, and Scoggin’s head
of distressed investments Dev Chodry, who collectively have decades of investment and portfolio
management experience, will remain employees of Scoggin. Therefore, they will maintain their current
responsibilities at the Scoggin funds while also managing the TCW/Scoggin funds.
“I’m very happy to team with Scoggin as we move to expand our alternatives capabilities and product
offerings,” said Ravich. “Our client base will now have access to an accomplished team of professionals
with a long and proven track record of outperformance.”
“TCW is one of the premier franchises in the asset management world with a 41-year tradition of
consistently strong investment management and a reputation for product innovation,” said Craig Effron,
co-founder of Scoggin. “The firm possesses broad research and analytic capabilities, enviable institutional
relationships and a world-class distribution network. We see TCW as the perfect partner for us to
augment our opportunity set.”
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