Ferd Special Investments made investments

Summary 2012

Ferd Special Investments worked with several hedge funds managers and managers of fund of hedge funds in 2012 to provide liquidity solutions for redeeming investors and holders of side pockets. At the end of the year Ferd Special Investments also participated by investing USD 50mm in a direct recapitalization of a side pocket investment.

Ferd Special Investments made investments in 39 underlying holdings through 13 transactions in 2012 for a total cash consideration of NOK 665mm. During the year we received NOK 480mm in proceeds from investments and the portfolio had a value of NOK 1,5bn at year end.

 In 2012 for a total cash consideration of NOK 665mm

Future prospects
We believe investing in illiquid assets and hedge fund side pockets will be a primary focus also in 2013, albeit there have been raised significant amounts of capital to the space in recent years, we expect to do fewer transactions than previous years. Ferd Special Investments currently have significant investment capacity and the privileged position of not having investor requirement to make new investments. So far it has not been the case, but should we not find opportunities offering an adequate margin of safety, we will not make any new investments.

We believe investing in illiquid assets and hedge fund side pockets will be a primary focus also in 2013

Relative to other participants we believe Ferd will continue to secure transactions by being an attractive counterparty offering high certainty of closing and flexibility in structuring the sales process. Ferd being a preferred buyer was evidenced both by being able to close transactions where negotiations had broken down with other buyers and by the number of repeat transactions with parties Ferd had transacted with before.

By not applying leverage or having liquidity constrains from underlying investors, Ferd Special Investments has also been able to take a longer term view on the underlying value of side pocket investments than other market participants and work with managers to achieve the full value of these.