Farallon Capital Management is a large San Francisco-based hedge fund focused on high-yield and other credit strategies and M&A risk arbitrage. The fund invests in a diverse set of assets. Its largest investments are in commercial lending, energy, consumer credit and Sherwin Williams, the paint company.
In addition to its core funds, Farallon operates a hedge fund outfit called Noonday Asset Management, which was headed by Farallon co-managing director Andrew J.M. Spokes from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, Spokes stepped down from the fund and returned to his management duties. Farallon, once among the world's largest hedge funds, took a beating in the financial crisis and is retrenching its investment strategies and investor communications. The firm, long a tight-lipped outfit, had taken heat for limiting redemptions during the financial crisis. But it's now seeking to be more open with investors about asset valuations and other portfolio information and even held its first investor conference in 2009. It is also centralizing its operation, which had sprawled during its period of rapid growth.
The firm was founded by in 1986 by co-managing partner Thomas Steyer, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. risk-arbitrager, partnering with San Francisco buyout firm Hellman & Friedman LLC. The firm has a traditional culture and some have called it the "McKinsey of hedge funds."
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