Having trouble finding a job because of that little dark spot on your resume detailing how you were partially responsible for losing your former employer billions of dollars? The answer: Launch your own business. That is reportedly the route Randy Barker and Geoff Coley, former co-heads of fixed income at Citigroup Inc., have taken.
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Barker and Coley are looking to start up a hedge fund, according to an anonymously sourced Reuters report. Barker was canned by Citi's CEO Charles Prince last October, and Coley according to reports was asked to take on another position and ultimately resigned. The pair headed a group responsible for a large chunk of the over $45 billion in Citi write-downs taken over the last three quarters due to bad bets tied on subprime-related investments.
Will the two be given a second chance by the ultra-affluent hedge fund crowd? The Reuters report posed this question and pointed to John Meriwether, who started another hedge fund, despite having previously presided over the trading desk involved in a scandal of Salomon Brothers and later co-founding the infamous Long-Term Capital Management Fund, which collapsed 10 years ago.
And even if Barker and Coley attract investments, it does not look to be the best time to be in hedge funds as a sector historically known for fat returns has been on the skinny side of late. Hedgefund.net's Hedge Fund Aggregate Average is up 0.66% year-to-date as of the end of May. - Michael Rudnick
See related story about layoffs at Citi from Dealscape
