Morgan Creek Capital Management and Julian H. Robertson Jr. are forming a joint venture, Tiger Select Fund Management. The new company will offer a series of single-strategy hedge funds of funds, beginning with a long-short equity fund launching July 1, said Mark W. Yusko, Morgan Creek president, in an interview.
Mr. Robertson's family foundation, the $500 million Robertson Foundation, will provide seed investment for the first fund and will take a minority ownership stake in Morgan Creek. Size of the ownership stake was not disclosed.
The investment in Morgan Creek and the new joint venture are the latest in a series of seeding investments Mr. Robertson and his foundation have made in hedge fund companies since March 2000, when Mr. Robertson closed the hedge funds Tiger Management managed to outside investors. At its peak, Tiger Management managed about $23 billion for outside investors.
"I am very thrilled to be associated with Mark Yusko," Mr. Robertson said in an interview. "He has a great deal of expertise in dealing with hedge fund managers. He knows the potential problem of adverse manager selection - a lot of good hedge fund managers don't want to be part of a hedge funds of funds. Mark knows how to handle this and how to get access to the best managers."
Some Morgan Creek staff members will be based in New York as part of the Tiger Select joint venture. Mr. Robertson will not actively manage any part of the funds of funds.
