Millbrook Capital Plans Conversion To Family Office

Eliane Chavagnon

29 May 2012

John Dyson’s New York-based Millbrook Capital is closing MMI Investments, an activist hedge fund which produced solid returns over 15 years, allowing Dyson to focus on his personal investments, according to Hedge Fund Alert.

It is understood that MMI is “on track” to return outside capital by 30 June, at which point Millbrook will operate as a family office for Dyson. Clay Lifflander, a portfolio manager of MMI, “apparently plans to move on,” the publication said.

General counsel and chief financial officer Alan Rivera and analyst John Powers plan to stay on at the firm, among others. Craig Rosenblum, vice president of research, and assistant portfolio manager Jerome Lande have left already.

Rosenblum and Lande plan to team up to launch an activist fund operation called Coppersmith Capital.

The MMI fund was launched in 1996 with backing from Dyson and Lifflander, as well as “friends and family” money.

In 2002, Millbrook began accepting capital from outside investors, reportedly peaking at around $700 million before the financial crisis; it generated a 20 to 25 per cent average annual return, including 80 per cent in 2009 by taking minority stakes in small- and mid-size companies.

Despite MMI contending with “a fair amount of withdrawals” during the financial crisis, the fund continued to prosper.

Dyson’s other business interests include DKM, a private equity firm founded by his father, Charles Dyson, and Millbrook Winery in New York’s Hudson Valley region.