Eddie Lampert Raising More Funds? (SHLD, C)

Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments is reportedly set to raise a few billion dollars for the new ESL hedge fund.  What would Lampert be able to do with more money?  He’d be able to take larger and larger stakes in other companies.  He could go back into acquisitions or recapitalizations.  He could become one of the top activist investors around with a much larger powder keg and piggy bank. 

After he took a small stake in Citigroup (C-NYSE), there has been more and more speculation that Lampert was going to bring on some larger partners for recapitalization and acquisition-esque holdings.  The only bad news here is that you’ll have to piggy back his investments after he takes stakes if you want to participate, because it doesn’t look like Sears Holdings (SHLD-NYSE) will be the big beneficiary here.

CNBC’s David Faber has noted that Lampert hired Goldman Sachs to raise $3 Billion to $5 Billion and funds will have a 5 year lock-up with restrictive notification periods.  David Faber also noted that the track record of Lampert may allow him to raise even more funds.

Jon C. Ogg
June 11, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.