Handful of Sculptor executives including Ayoub to leave hedge fund -memo (updated)

Rithm Capital

13/02/2024 19:39

(Adds details from memo throughout, history of Sculptor's
takeover)
    By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
       NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters) - 
    Sculptor Capital, the hedge fund at the heart of a recent
bitter takeover battle, is shaking up its top ranks as a handful
of senior executives, including a prominent money manager, are
leaving the firm.
  
        Jimmy Levin, Sculptor's chief investment officer and
executive managing partner, announced the departures and
promotions in a memo to the firm that was seen by Reuters.
  
        He said Chief Financial Officer Dava Ritchea is leaving
for a "new opportunity," while chief legal officer David Levine
will be "moving on." Louisa Church, head of the client partner
group, EMEA, is also leaving, the memo said.
    Also leaving is Ghassan Ayoub, who joined Sculptor more than
two decades ago and was most recently an executive managing
director and global head of convertible and derivative arbitrage
at the firm, as well as a member of the portfolio committee.
"Ghassan accomplished a tremendous amount over a long period of
time here and we wish him well," Levin wrote in the memo.
    Ayoub is moving to rival hedge fund Millennium, which
manages $62 billion, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Bloomberg first reported Ayoub's departure.
        A spokesman for Millennium declined to comment.
        The reordering of the top ranks comes only months after
a fevered fight for the future of Sculptor, which was then the
largest U.S. publicly traded hedge fund with some $33 billion in
assets.
  
        After the firm agreed to sell itself to real estate
investment firm Rithm Capital, a group of well known investors
including Saba Capital's Boaz Weinstein, Pershing Square Capital
Management's Bill Ackman and Avenue Capital Group's Marc Lasry 
    tried to buy Sculptor for a higher price.
  
        Drama centered around Levin's future with Rithm
promising to keep him in place, arguing that investors preferred
continuity. The Weinstein group would not have kept Levin in the
role. Rithm completed the purchase of Sculptor late last year.
  
        Levin wrote that Stephane Mantelin was promoted to
global head of convertible and derivative arbitrage and joined
the Portfolio Committee and Risk Committee.
  
        Ellen Conti will be chief financial officer while Julie
Siegel will be chief legal officer.
  
            
  

 (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Franklin Paul and
Leslie Adler)
 ((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 233 2138; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))