Yael Bizouati at Clusterstock posed the question:
So this is really odd: On the day that Citadel dropped the “Citadel” word from one of its units [Citadel Solutions] and rebranded it Omnium, that same unit was selected by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to deal with its bankruptcy proceedings . . . So what’s going on here? Did [Citadel head] Ken Griffin change the name thinking it would resolve all of the firm’s problems?
Or, did Ken, in anticipation of the Lehman deal, drop the Citadel word for fear of being associated with the doomed bank?
Not quite.
An FT article on Wednesday provided what we think is a clue:
A subsidiary of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel Investment Group has been appointed the asset administrator for the US operations of failed bank Lehman Brothers.
The news comes barely a week after Citadel’s Equity fund lodged a $470m claim against the Lehman bankruptcy estate, revealing itself as a leading creditor.
That unit is Citadel Solutions — now Omnium, a reference to what we’re told is some sort of bicycle race.
The name change, we think, does not really have much to do with Citadel wanting to disassociate itself from the failed Lehman Brothers, per se, but rather distinguish between its equity fund and its administration unit — which has just nailed its biggest client yet in the shape of Lehman.
The name change also has the added bonus of differentiating among Citadel’s various dealings with the failed investment bank: on the one hand you have Citadel Equity Fund filing that $470m claim for Lehman assets, and on the other you have Citadel Solutions — sorry Omnium — administering its US assets.
All clear?