Kenneth Griffin, the secretive Chicago hedge fund manager who started a convertible-bond arbitrage fund in his dorm room his sophomore year at Harvard may be taking his hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, public, reports CNN. Griffin “came about as close as legally possible Tuesday to advertise that his highflying $20 billion hedge fund is on the edge of going public,” CNN reported from the Milken Conference in Los Angeles on April 30. During a panel discussion entitled, “State of the State of Wall Street: Creating Opportunity Out of Chaos,” Griffin lavished himself with praise for the ridiculous sums of money he’s made for himself and his clients before trashing Bear Stearns for “risk management gaffes.” And the future “looks pretty good” for funds like his, he quipped. As Fierce Finance reported last week, Griffin has been taking advantage of the recent trouble on Wall Street, recognizing the turmoil as an opportunity to snatch up talent. A recent catch was J.P. Morgan’s fixed-income chief Patrik Edsparr, who will start as chief of Citadel’s European division in July. The poach has Dealbreaker’s Bess Levin anticipating the realization of a longtime fantasy of hers: a catfight between Griffin and J.P. Morgan CEO James Dimon. “We'll get to see the middle aged men pulling each other’s hair and rolling around on the floor."
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