Farallon Capital
 |
|
| Limited partnership | |
| Industry | Global investment management |
| Founded | January 1986 |
| Headquarters |
One Maritime Plaza San Francisco, California, U.S. |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Tom Steyer (co-managing partner) Andrew J.M. Spokes (co-managing partner) |
| AUM | US$ 21,500,000,000 (2011) |
|
Number of employees
|
165 (2010) |
| Website | www |
Farallon Capital Management, L.L.C. is an American investment firm that manages capital on behalf of institutions and individuals. The firm was founded by Tom Steyer in 1986. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the firm employs approximately 165 professionals in eight countries around the world.
Farallon primarily manages capital for university endowments, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals.
Tom Steyer founded Farallon in January 1986 with $15 million in seed capital. Previously, Steyer worked for San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, as a risk arbitrage trader under Robert Rubin at Goldman Sachs, and in Morgan Stanley's corporate mergers and acquisitions department.
Farallon made a name for itself by being one of the first firms to raise money from a university endowment. In 1987, Steyer, who received his bachelor's degree from Yale, approached the university's endowment to allocate funds for Farallon to manage. The Yale endowment declined based on the fees charged by Farallon. David Swensen, Yale's chief investment officer, later came to an arrangement with Tom Steyer in which Farallon would initially manage an allocation of the Yale endowment for no fee. After Yale's investment proved to be lucrative, many other college endowments and pensions began to invest in hedge funds.
Farallon pioneered absolute return investing, a model focusing on potential returns as well as risk adjusted returns. Absolute return investing "treats every investment—whether a residential mortgage, a common stock, or a parcel of land—as a bond, with an implied rate of return." Farallon invests in various asset classes including value investments, credit investments, merger arbitrage, real estate related investments, and direct investments in both developed and emerging markets. Farallon typically holds positions anywhere from two to five years.
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Wikipedia