(Bloomberg) -- FX Concepts LLC, the currency hedge fund founded by John Taylor in 1981, asked a bankruptcy court for permission to sell its trademark and trading models to Ruby Commodities Inc. for $7.48 million after an auction yesterday.
Ruby made the best offer for all the companys assets after 39 rounds of bidding, International Foreign Exchange Concepts Holdings Inc., the holding company for FX Concepts, said a filing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Before that, FX Concepts proposed to sell its trading models individually and drew offers that valued them at as much as $3.48 million, according to court papers.
The sale to Ruby shouldnt be subject to review, even though the two companies have a tenuous connection because an FX Concepts employee is a director of a fund managed by Ruby, FX Concepts said.
These selections were made in good faith, without collusion or improper influence, FX Concepts said. Aktis Capital Management Ltd. made the second-highest total offer of $7.38 million.
The sale includes trading models, hardware, historical data and the FX Concepts trademark. The companys intraday trading model was valued at $1.3 million after 14 bids, the highest value of any asset, before aggregate bidding began.
FX Concepts, once the worlds largest currency hedge fund with more than $14 billion in assets at its peak, said in October it would shut its investment-management business. The New York-based company filed for bankruptcy eight days later.
Final Straw
The final straw was the decision by the San Francisco Employees Retirement System, which accounted for almost 66 percent of FX Concepts assets under management in September, to pull the more than $450 million it had invested, the company said.
Investor funds have been, or will be, returned, International Foreign Exchange Concepts has said.
The case is In re International Foreign Exchange Concepts Holdings Inc. 13-bk-13379, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
