October 16, 2006 Marfin Financial Group announces that it has reached an agreement through its fully owned subsidiary Marfin Bank to acquire a 30% membership interest of ARIS Capital Management, LLC, with the option of purchasing another 21% of the outstanding membership interest of the company within a 3 year period. Total consideration for the acquisition of the 30% membership was $3 million. Marfin Financial Group expects a return on capital invested of over 20% p.a
ARIS Capital Management, founded in December 2003, is an SEC Registered Investment Adviser based in New York City that specializes in managing multi-strategy funds of hedge funds. Total assets under management are approximately $140 million. Since ARIS Capital Management's formation, Jason Papastavrou has served as Chief Investment Officer and together with his team have lead the company to consistent growth in assets under management, profitability, and consistent returns.
Dr. Papastavrou has significant experience in the hedge fund industry and banking sector. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Papastavrou founded and served as Chief Investment Officer of the Bank of America fund of hedge funds business with AUMs of approximately $1 billion, while prior to that he was Senior Portfolio Manager in Deutsche Bank's asset management arm which managed a $4.5 billion fund of hedge funds portfolio. Dr. Papastavrou holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and a Master's and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and currently sits on the Board of United Rentals Inc, the largest equipment rental source in the United States.
The transaction is consistent with Marfin Financial Group's strategy of offering high value asset management products to clients, is very synergetic and complementary to current product offering, and marks the entrance of the Group in the high growth area of Alternative Investments.
