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Primus Agrees to Buy CypressTree

Published May 12, 2009 12:01 PM EDT Updated May 12, 2009 12:04 PM EDT 2 Min Read

Primus Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Primus Guaranty, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CypressTree Investment Management, according to a press release.

In this light, Martha Hadeler and Robert Weeden, CypressTree partners and portfolio managers, will join Primus as senior portfolio managers and will assume responsibility for managing its loan and high-yield platform, including its CLOs. They will report to Thomas Jasper, Primus Guarantys chief executive officer.

CypressTree, which was founded in 1995, manages leveraged loans and high yield bonds in a variety of investment products, such as CLOs, collateralized swap obligations (CSOs), off-shore funds as well as separately managed accounts. Its assets under management total roughly $2.4 billion.

Following the acquisition, CypressTree will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Primus Asset Management (PAM), which will have over $25 billion in assets under management in structured credit vehicles.

This includes the $21 billion notional credit default swaps portfolio of Primus Financial Products, as well as two existing Primus CLOs with $800 million in assets and three existing Primus CSOs totaling $800 million.

The acquisition of CypressTree marks a solid step forward in our strategy to leverage our platform and increase the scale and scope of our credit asset management business, said Jasper. It also significantly strengthens our investment capabilities, as Martha and Bob bring excellent track records and five decades of combined experience to Primus. Im delighted to welcome the CypressTree team to our company.

In joining forces with Primus, we are bringing together two fundamental credit investors who share a common investment approach to build a robust loan and high yield platform with the size and skills to succeed in todays market, Weeden said.

Fusion Advisory Partners acted as advisor to Primus Asset Management on the acquisition. Fusion provides third party independent advice to participants in the fixed income structured product market.

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