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Merrill Lynch Announces Minority Stake in DiMaio Ahmad Capital L.L.C.
NEW YORK, October 10, 2006 — Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) today announced that it has agreed to take a passive, minority stake in DiMaio Ahmad Capital L.L.C. (D/A Capital), an alternative investment management firm specializing in credit products. D/A Capital manages several credit-oriented hedge funds and has a substantial business in CLOs and CDOs. As part of the deal, Merrill Lynch, through its Hedge Fund Development and Management Group, has also committed proprietary capital to be invested in D/A Capital hedge funds. D/A Capital will remain an independent firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"D/A Capital has an outstanding group of investment professionals who specialize in innovative credit market solutions," said Dow Kim, president of the Global Markets & Investment Banking group at Merrill Lynch. "They have successfully built a valuable business, and we look forward to working together to further grow the firm by utilizing the global resources of Merrill Lynch."
"We are very excited about this strategic alliance," said Jack DiMaio, CEO of D/A Capital. "These additional resources will allow us to accelerate our plans to expand our capabilities for investing in the global credit markets, in our efforts to capture superior returns for our investors."
D/A Capital manages approximately $2 billion in hedge fund assets and over $1 billion in structured vehicles and is based in New York. The firm's principal strategies are in credit investing, offering its clients investment opportunities in various hedge fund and structured credit vehicles. Founded by Jack DiMaio and Nasser Ahmad, D/A Capital spun-out from Credit Suisse Alternative Capital, Inc. in April 2005.
Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies with offices in 36 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.5 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Merrill Lynch owns just under half of BlackRock, one of the world's largest publicly traded investment management companies with approximately $1 trillion in assets under management. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.
Jack DiMaio is chief executive officer and managing partner of DiMaio Ahmad Capital L.L.C. Prior to co-founding the Investment Manager, Mr. DiMaio was a managing director and was chief executive officer of Alternative Investments at Credit Suisse Asset Management ("CSAM"). He was also an Executive Board Member of Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Inc. (f/k/a Credit Suisse First Boston LLC) ("CS"). Prior to that, he was responsible for the entire Global Credit Products Cluster and named head of Fixed Income Division North America at CS.
Nasser A. Ahmad is chief investment officer and managing partner of DiMaio Ahmad Capital L.L.C. Prior to co-founding the Investment Manager, Mr. Ahmad was previously a managing director of CS Capital, the chief investment officer for the Diversified Credit Hedge Fund Group Prior to that, he was co-head of Global Cash and Derivatives Credit Trading within the Fixed Income Division at CS.
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