JPMorgan exec sees more Amaranth-type opportunities
Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:10pm ET18
Market View
NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A top executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday the bank is ready to pounce on any opportunities that may develop from hedge fund industry woes such as the meltdown at Amaranth Advisors LLC.
JPMorgan, the No. 3 U.S. bank, got a profit boost in the third quarter from the collapse of Amaranth, which unloaded its natural gas portfolio at a discount to the bank and Citadel Investment Group.
Bill Winters, co-chief executive of JPMorgan's investment banking business, said the bank has unique insight into the hedge fund industry because it has broad relationships with firms that have some $1 trillion in assets under management.
"We are not exposed from a credit perspective, materially, which allows us to respond quickly to opportunities when they come up," Winters said at Merrill Lynch's banking and financial services conference in New York.
"Amaranth was one obvious example of that," Winters said. "I imagine there will be others as we go through time where our ability to be on the inside, but not compromised, is extremely powerful."
Amaranth of Greenwich, Connecticut, has disclosed that its net asset value had fallen nearly 70 percent in September from a peak of $9.2 billion after wrong-way energy trades decimated the prominent hedge fund group. Amaranth suffered a $6.4 billion loss in September.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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