New firm to invest across private equity opportunities

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael Kim, a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, today announced the formation of Cendana Capital, a next generation fund-of-funds investing in private equity. Based in San Francisco, Cendana Capital will pursue a tactical and opportunistic strategy, which will include non-traditional private equity and venture capital investments.

Cendana Capital is forming at a time when more institutional investors face greater opportunities to generate excess returns, but are resource constrained or cannot deploy capital efficiently. A recent study by Casey & Quirk projects that outsourced investment assets in the US will grow from $195 billion at the end of 2008 to $510 billion by 2012.

"Many institutional investors face significant challenges to achieving appropriate risk adjusted investment returns. There is a large and growing opportunity for next generation investors to construct optimal portfolios by better assessing risk opportunities across the entire private equity continuum," said Mr. Kim.

To execute this strategy, the Cendana Capital team will draw upon its substantial limited partner and general partner expertise. From March 2004 to September 2009, Mr. Kim was a trustee of the San Francisco Employees Retirement System ("SFERS"), a $13 billion public pension fund, where he served as Chairman of the Investment Committee and as President. "Having spent the past decade as both an LP and GP, it is clear there are significant incongruities in how LPs and GPs seek to generate returns. Cendana Capital will take advantage of these opportunities to provide better potential for exceptional returns to our investors," said Mr. Kim. SFERS Executive Director Clare Murphy noted, "Michael is a trusted advisor, and we look forward to his perspectives of the private equity world."

Based in Silicon Valley, Mr. Kim was one of the original partners at Rustic Canyon Partners, a venture capital firm headquartered in Santa Monica, CA. With the formation of Cendana Capital, Mr. Kim will become an Advisory Partner, and transfer his responsibilities at Rustic Canyon Partners by the end of this year. "We truly enjoyed our relationship with Michael over the past ten years, and we look forward to sharing insights with him in the future," said Tom Unterman, Managing Partner at Rustic Canyon Partners. With three funds of approximately $1 billion, as well as $700 million under management in its affiliated investment firms, US Renewables Group and Rustic Canyon/Fontis, Rustic Canyon Partners is among the largest Southern California-based venture capital firms.

SOURCE Cendana Capital