Ian Isaacs Joins Merlin Securities to Lead Fundamental Research and Market Intelligence Offering

Business Wire,  April 28, 2008  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK -- Merlin Securities, a broker dealer specializing in technology driven prime brokerage services, announced today that Ian Isaacs has joined Merlin Securities as a Senior Partner, Director of Research and member of the Executive Committee.

Ian brings over 25 years of experience and expertise in researching and developing investment ideas with industry-leading long/short equity hedge funds. His relationships in the hedge fund community extend from junior analysts and startup managers to well-established portfolio and fund managers. He also consults with a number of funds of funds on manager selection. Before joining Merlin, Ian spent eight years with UBS as a Senior Vice President and five years prior with Hambrecht and Quist. Ian also serves on the Board of Directors of Greenlight Re (GLRE- OTC), a publicly owned Cayman-based reinsurance company with assets managed in hedge fund style.

"Merlin provides hedge fund managers with the best tools and services in the market to manage their portfolio and grow their business efficiently." Say Stephan Vermut, Founder and Managing Partner of Merlin Securities." Ian's product is one of the best in the business and a perfect mesh with our value added approach" adds Vermut.

"Hedge fund managers never stop looking for alpha, through new investment ideas, as well as intelligence on their current holdings," says Ian Isaacs. "The Merlin platform provides a natural environment for my approach to fundamental research and market intelligence." Adds Isaacs, "I look forward to working with the entire team at Merlin and its expanding client base."

About Merlin Securities

Merlin Securities is a broker dealer providing advanced reporting, trading, and operational services to hedge funds through technology driven Prime Brokerage Services. Merlin's advanced reporting platform for single and multi-primed hedge funds provides managers with a dynamic fund transparency reporting tool that includes customizable reporting, performance attribution models (absolute and relative), risk management components and multi-prime portfolio aggregation. The firm has both Agency and Outsourced trading desks that provide clients with trading flexibility and access to all markets. In 2007, Global Custodian named Merlin Securities the number one Prime Broker in North America, the number one Prime Broker for single strategy funds and the number one Prime Broker for funds under $100mm. Merlin was also named the number one Prime Broker for funds less than $1B by Alpha Magazine in their 2007 Hedge Fund Service Provider Survey. In the recently release 2008 Global Custodian Survey, Merlin achieved the highest overall scores, including single and multi-prime brokerage rankings.

In January 2008, leading private equity firm Sequoia Capital invested $20 million in Merlin Securities.

Merlin Securities offers clients custody and clearing services through Bear Stearns Securities Corporation and Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing.

Merlin has offices in New York and San Francisco. For more information, see the Merlin Securities' website at www.merlinsecurities.com.

Merlin Securities is a member of FINRA and SIPC.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning