• 06 Feb 2013 at 6:33 PM

20th Century Bank Names Hedge Fund Giveaway For 16th Century Mathematician

By Jon Shazar

Did you know the name of the guy who discovered the logarithm? Someone at Citigroup did, and he or she decided to rename its soon-to-be-given-away hedge fund unit after him.

Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank, renamed an internal hedge-fund unit Napier Park Global Capital as it spins out the business with about $6.8 billion in holdings under management….

The new name was inspired by the 16th-century Scottish mathematician and physicist, John Napier, known for his groundbreaking work on logarithms, Citigroup said.

Citi, of course, has to get rid of Citi Capital Advisors/Napier Park because Paul Volcker is a humorless, mean old bastard. And while some banks in similar positions have sold off their hedge funds or just closed them down entirely, Vikram Pandit (remember him?) came up with a different plan for his buddies at his favorite business unit just before he got his walking papers: He made it (75% of it, anyway) a gift; the employees getting a majority stake in it won’t pay a dime for it.

Citigroup Names $6.8 Billion Fund-Unit Spinout Napier Park

Comments (16)

  1. 1
    Posted by Guest | February 6, 2013 at 6:38 PM

    Well first off he discovered the logarithm, not the algorithm.

    If you're just gonna shazar your pants everytime you post an article I'd recommend just playing in traffic instead.

    -UBS (soon to be) History Quant

  2. 2
    Posted by Mrs_Slocombe | February 6, 2013 at 7:10 PM

    Christ, logarithm is actually cited as a quote in the post….is he ignorant or just plain fucking stupid?

  3. 3
    Posted by velvet melvin | February 6, 2013 at 7:11 PM

    wow.
    "…simply linking to prior published posts in reaction to new events and new opinions would be both bad blogging practice and stultifyingly boring." -the epicurean dealmaker

  4. 4
    Posted by quant me maybe... | February 6, 2013 at 7:18 PM

    One word Shazar:

    <img src"http://4.cdn.tapcdn.com/images/thumbs/taps/2013/02/funny-baby96-e9281f9a-sz544x408-animate.jpg"/&gt;

  5. 5
    Posted by Quant me maybe... | February 6, 2013 at 7:19 PM

    Well that sucked. I'll be taking a lap, now.

    <img src="http://4.cdn.tapcdn.com/images/thumbs/taps/2013/02/funny-baby96-e9281f9a-sz544x408-animate.jpg"/&gt;

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | February 6, 2013 at 7:25 PM

    HAHAHAHA

  7. 7
    Posted by Guest | February 7, 2013 at 1:24 AM

    Alright c'mon — this post had to have been a joke.

  8. 8
    Posted by PermaGuestII | February 7, 2013 at 10:22 AM

    We need to get a movement going to stop him from hanging up his cleats.

  9. 9
    Posted by Shazar<x for all x | February 7, 2013 at 11:08 AM

    Algorithm, logarithm. This is the guy who invented the algorithm (probably) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwārizmī

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | February 7, 2013 at 11:51 AM

    I get "Napier", but why "Park"? Did Sir John have a lesser-known Korean collaborator? Or just didn't have the same ring as "Napier Lane"?

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | February 7, 2013 at 12:34 PM

    Shazar's best hope is that Bess fires him quickly. If he writes many more posts like this, he'll be unhireable by Yahoo Finance or Newsmax.

  12. 12
    Posted by value: added | February 7, 2013 at 2:21 PM

    Such a bad sense of humor dude

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | February 7, 2013 at 5:11 PM

    The revised headline is still shazar'd up – apparently he doesn't understand how century numbering works

  14. 14
    Posted by Christina Basdeo | February 10, 2013 at 8:56 PM

    Hedge fund managers, traders and quants get together every second Tuesday at a networking reception organized by Golden Networking every second Tuesday in New York City. More information at http://www.HFHappyHour.com.

  15. 15
    Posted by Ron Jeremy | February 13, 2013 at 11:34 AM

    what happens to Napier Park when Citi $$ comes out? How much of that $6.8 is Citi? Seems like these ex Morgan Stanley guys are making out pretty well. Are any of the funds any good? I know that two PMs bailed on this spinnout so will that have a longer term impact?

  16. 16
    Posted by Lex | February 13, 2013 at 11:37 AM

    Or is it being named after John Napier's descendant Jack…. see if you can catch that reference.