How to survive a total market meltdown
In the final keynote speech of the Summit, Amber Capital co-founder Joseph Oughourlian offered a candid assessment of his and his partners' experiences during the market meltdown in 2008, outlining how his firm fell from grace but managed to resurface with many of its investors still onboard.
Established in 2005 and focused on European event-driven investing, Amber grew out of a prop desk run by Oughourlian at Société Générale in New York. He had managed the Amber Fund with the bank's money since 2001, raising outside capital two years later.
On becoming independent, Amber Capital built assets to a peak of $7.5 billion before suffering losses and redemptions in 2008. To make matters worse, the firm became one of the most high-profile hedge funds caught up in the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which held about 25% of the firm's assets at the time....