Hedge Fund Advertising and Skybridge In Talks With Midtown Ad Agency

Sept. 28, 2012 - PRLog -- Hedge Fund Advertising and Skybridge In Talks With Midtown Ad Agency. We have been keeping a close eye on the street and ear to the ground – a friend who I met for dinner this past week recently left a senior post at  FINRA for seat in compliance at a well named Multi-Strat- when asked about the JOBS Act, she looked at me bright eyed and with a big smile (more of confusion than happiness) AND both palms up raised slightly by her mild shoulder shrug- “No shit?!?!” I bust out in awe, her response a slow and single head nod accompanied by her beautiful smile  ;)  - Interpret this however you’d like but I will say deep down things are brewing, upgrades are happening and new relationships are budding-  More on this soon when we interview…….
;) stay posted
Hedge Fund Advertising and Skybridge In Talks With Midtown Ad Agency
http://www.hedgeho.com/hedge-fund-rock-stars/hedge-fund-titans/hedge-fund-marketing/hedge-fund-advertising-and-skybridge-in-talks-with-midtown-ad-agency/
The day when you can advertise your hedge fund on Dealbreaker creeps ever closer, so claim your spot now because they are going fast.* The SEC has shown some justifiable skepticism about implementing the JOBS Act, and at least SEC-ster thinks that it’s been dragging its feet on the hedge fund advertising rules, but still, it has to be said, when the SEC was told to let you advertise your hedge fund, they really let you advertise your hedge fund. Soon you will be able to  say whatever you want about your hedge fund, and
   not say whatever you don’t want to say about it, as long as
   you take reasonable steps to actually sell it only to accredited investors.
Hedge Fund Advertising and Skybridge In Talks With Midtown Ad Agency-
Hedge Fund Guy
Each of those things is a little surprising, no? First, there are no apparent restrictions on advertising – as DealBook says, “The commission was also mum on what sort of advertising would be allowed – can a hedge fund rent the Goodyear blimp, or will newspapers be the upper limit of public exposure?” You know who has blimp-sized plans?

   “I am hellbent on creating a global brand and the only way to do that is through advertising,” said Anthony Scaramucci of fund of hedge funds SkyBridge Capital, which manages $3 billion in assets and hosts a star-studded industry conference in Las Vegas [attended by representatives of numerous hedge funds who built global brands by investing successfully rather than by advertising but let's not let a little absurdity slow us down - Ed.].

   Earlier this year, Mr. Scaramucci had lunch with a midsize New York ad firm he says he could hire if the ban is lifted, adding he was waiting to learn what rules the SEC would issue and for his lawyers to approve any plans he might hatch.

So these rules apply to “private” or “unregistered” offerings, as opposed to “public” or “registered” offerings, which have always been able to feature “general solicitation.” Just – not so much of it. The “general solicitation” allowed for public offerings is in practice super boring and features a lot of 200-page prospectuses and virtually no blimps – remember all those TV commercials hyping the Facebook IPO? – as well as
relatively little biased research put out by underwriters to sell the deal.
Hedge Fund Advertising and Skybridge In Talks With Midtown Ad Agency
But the “general solicitation” that will now be allowed for private offerings seems to be much more public, and much more solicitous, than that allowed for public offerings. Like “Any advertisement, article, notice or other communication published in any newspaper, magazine, or similar media or broadcast over television or radio,” or “[a]ny seminar or meeting whose attendees have been invited by any general solicitation or general advertising.” I just, I mean, there are some simple rules that you need to know to survive in this complicated world, and one of them is anything at all sold to you at a seminar is a fraud. Have at it!
http://www.hedgeho.com/categories/hedge-fund-news/
Anyway  while the SEC doesn’t restrict what you say, it also doesn’t require you to say much. There is no information requirement. In the olden days of private offerings you were allowed to sell to some non-accredited investors; now** if you general-solicit you can’t. But in the olden days you needed to give them, basically, registered-offering-type audited financial statements. But accredited-only offerings don’t require any financials, leaving plenty of time at those seminars to talk about how to triple your money using no-money-down real estate strategies.

Of course, you’re still only allowed to sell to accredited investors – basically institutions, individuals with a net worth of $1mm excluding their residence, and individuals with $200K (or couples with $300K) of annual income – though you have only to take “reasonable steps” to verify that. The SEC considered specifying what those steps would be, but decided not to, though it hinted that they’d be pretty lax:

   The ability of a purchaser to satisfy a minimum investment amount requirement that is sufficiently high such that only accredited investors could reasonably be expected to meet it, with a direct cash investment that is not financed by the issuer or by any other third party, could be taken into consideration in verifying accredited investor status.
Hedge Fund Advertising and Skybridge In Talks With Midtown Ad Agency
So, I guess this says, if you can put up $50,000, surely you make at least $200,000 a year. What could, as they say, possibly go wrong?***
http://www.hedgeho.com/hedge-fund-news/sec-green-lights-h...
Doesn’t this feel a little like the SEC saying “okay, Congress, you want lots of fraud, here you go, enjoy your fraud”? Selling to “accredited investors” sounds pretty good because it sort of sounds like you have to pass a test, but of course you don’t: you just need to be a moderately successful dentist or interior designer. And now those people will have a lot more access to unaudited investment opportunities that are not publicly filed or reviewed by the SEC. I suspect they’ll have a lot of opportunities to choose from.