A pair of Friedman Billings Ramsey veterans is set to launch their first hedge fund, investing in mortgage securities, with at least $100 million.
Michael Youngblood and Steve Gaenzler’s Five Bridges Capital will debut in the next 30 to 60 days, Reuters reports. The Mortgage Opportunity Fund will invest in undervalued mortgage assets, focusing initially on non-agency mortgage securities.
“It’s not a vulture fund,” said Youngblood, in an interview. “It’s a relative-value fund. We are old-fashioned bond pickers.”
Youngblood said he hopes the fund will grow to $1 billion.
Youngblood and Gaenzler said last week they were leaving FBR Investment Management to found Washington, D.C.-based Five Bridges. The new firm has already hired an FBR colleague, senior quantitative analyst Jason Hu, and will add another three professionals in the near future.
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