| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hedge funds |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder | Irvin Kessler |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S. |
| AUM | US$4 billion (at its peak) |
| Website | www |
Deephaven Capital Management, LLC was a subsidiary of Knight Capital Group that managed various hedge funds. The company was later shutdown due to poor performance blamed on prevailing macro-economic environment. [1]
Deephaven Capital Management was established in 1994 with $5 million in assets by Irvin Kessler. [2] It focused on event-driven funds in addition to five additional funds managed from its offices in Minnetonka, London, and Hong Kong. [1] At its peak, the company managed $4 billion in assets in six different hedge funds. [3] Kessler sold the company in 2000 to Knight Capital Group although he continued to work there for a few more years before leaving to found Provident Advisors and later Walleye Capital. [2]
The SEC investigated Deephaven Capital in 2006, accusing one of its portfolio managers of insider trading involving 19 of its Private investment in public equity (PIPE) offerings. [4] The hedge fund agreed to pay the sum of $5.8 million in disgorgement, penalties and interests including $2.7 million paid for unlawful profit and $343,000 pre-judgment interest. [4] [5] The portfolio manager also paid $110,000 as part of the civil penalty. [5]
In late 2008, Deephaven froze its Global Multi-Strategy Fund with assets of $1.6 billion. [6] The fund lost 32% in 2008, which resulted in investors requesting to withdraw 30% of their funds. [7] Until then, the fund had yearly returns of 16%. In its 2008 filings, Deephaven reported a $5.7 million pretax quarterly loss, leading to a drastic slide of its $4 billion asset at the beginning of the year to $2.7 billion by October. [8] In 2009, Deephaven sold its assets in the Global Multi-Strategy Fund to Stark Investments for up to $44.5 million after an initial payment of $7.3 million. [9] [7] Upon the sale, Deephaven's remaining assets were sold off; the office furniture was sold for cents on the dollar to a local asset manager, Disciplined Growth Investors. [10]