Sex sells. We all know that. But does it generate alpha?
“Adult firm to launch hedge fund” ran the story, flagged up by Hedgeweek. The firm in question is AdultVest, set up by former hedge-fund manager Francis Koenig who apparently moved to LA last year with the intention of directing investment towards the porn industry.
One report on the DailyBreeze.com makes Mr Koenig sound more like a venture capitalist than a hedge fund manager. The story says that he aims to match investors and successful entrepreneurs with growing “adult-entertainment” companies.
The type of thing he has in mind is not the opera. Mr Koenig will be hunting, at a convention in Hollywood later this year, for “actors and actresses who want to fund a production or other venture to submit a proposal to his website.” Meanwhile, his investors must have an annual income of $200,000 a year, combined household income of $300,000 a year and net worth of at least $1m.
Another story from earlier this year reports that Mr Kroenig was previously a managing director at New World Partners and is trying to raise $110m across two funds.
FT Alphaville would love to know more. Is there now a separate hedge fund venture being planned? What criteria will Mr Koenig be using to assess his applicants? What are the returns (or perks?) the lucky investors can expect?
Alas, Mr Koenig’s website and various others related to his endeavours are blocked by the FT nanny state and an urgent request that they be opened for viewing has yet to be met. No consenting adults here then.
Yea, actually, this is really old news.
We in the adult industry heard this last month.
“Alternative Investment News” probably scraped the story from someone else.
I’ll bet neither of these people actually talked to the company, but instead got the story from the wire.
So, save me your indignant “stolen story” rattle.
actually II’s Alternative Investment News broke this back on June 4. Hedgeweek is just a scraping service, they don’t have any original content.
as for the story, well it’s the world’s oldest profession for a reason. Sex sells.