One time high-flying arbitrage group finds itself besieged on all sides
George Hall is a man with many interests, a thirst for knowledge and a luxury yacht berthed off Manhattan that is big enough to accommodate lavish parties and political fundraisers. Today, that glamour must seem a long way off as Hall rolls up his sleeves and battles to save the company that he has spent 12 years building into one of the premier fixed-income and arbitrage outfits in the world. At its peak, the firm had $10 billion of assets. Now it is besieged on all sides.
A run of poor performance started the problems. This was followed by the departure of a number of portfolio managers and damaging details of one of their rifts with Hall being filed in a New York court. Unsettled investors started to redeem. Then one disgruntled employee carried out the coup de grace by...