PARIS, and NEW YORK, May 20, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- A spokesperson for Ginepri
Capital, the New York-based Fund of Hedge Funds [FoHF] and SAGA Capital, a New
York-based alternative investments advisory firm, announced today a newly
formed venture, the SAGA/Ginepri Alpha Fund that focuses on the structuring of
complex film slates and debt portfolios in the motion picture space.  SG Alpha
Fund's activities will focus on the financing, analysis and securitization of
mid to high budget independent films with committed distribution.
    Ginepri and SAGA have contributed significant proprietary risk capital to
the new venture and will structure both direct and syndicated debt for its own
investments as well as the industry at large. SG Funds will be syndicating USD
400 million in debt, between a group of New York and European investment
banks, to leverage committed capital. The company will only green-light
investments using the proprietary Movie Alpha Model.
    Ginepri was particularly attracted to SAGA based on its focus. Since its
inception, SAGA has focused mainly on two areas: advising foreign corporations
on nontraditional sources of funding such as Specified Purpose Acquisition
Companies (SPACs) to give them access to affordable capital and risk transfer
mechanisms to finance and expand their operations and secondly; advising
financial institutions, hedge funds, and private individuals in the creation
of financial structures to take advantage of opportunities to invest via
"Synthetic Securitization" and "Synthetic Swap Funding".
    With a strong emphasis in analyzing the risk/returns of intangible assets
in developed economies, and risk/returns of commodity based enterprises in
emerging markets, the management team of SAGA has accumulated significant
expertise in financial modeling as well as in the evaluation of sound legal,
accounting, and tax structures required to ensure successful execution. This
experience includes the analysis and securitization of deals with embedded
credit risk, market risk, and operational risk.
    Ralf Voellmer, SAGA President stated "We are very enthusiastic about our
association with Ginepri for the design, valuation, production and
distribution of film portfolios and related acquisitions.  The operational and
financial infrastructure of Ginepri will allow us implement and exploit SAGA's
intangible asset valuation models."
    "Film investors will increasingly employ new techniques (Modern Portfolio
Theory, stochastic simulations, value at risk, etc.) commonly used by
investment banks, advisory firms and hedgers to analyze the risk/return
profiles of potential securities investments. Both parties are bringing their
expertise in the area to the table, and we are complementary," S.K. Dean,
Managing Partner of Ginepri Capital added.
    About Saga Capital:
    SAGA was founded in 2005 by Ralf Voellmer and Luis M. Sanchez.  Prior to
that, both worked in various aspects of structuring and managing alternative
investment vehicles at Deutsche Bank.
    Ralf Voellmer, one of the founding members of SAGA and its lead analyst in
the film area, has worked on all major aspects of domestic and offshore
investments for more than ten years. Eight of those years were at Deutsche
Bank in New York, where he was involved with the launch of Deutsche Bank's
first hedge fund. Mr. Voellmer has developed novel structures and solutions in
on- and off-shore regulatory environments around the world, and developed
workarounds for a variety of contingencies. He has acted as consultant and
advisor to clients ranging from large international financial institutions
(both public and private), to small, innovative alternative investment funds.
    SAGA Capital's proprietary model was created by Luis M Sanchez, drawing on
over 18 years' experience of building models incorporating Monte Carlo
simulations, Bayes Theorem, expert systems, and other techniques developed for
risk/return evaluation for investment banks, hedge funds, and securities
firms. These models are currently being used to price catastrophe bonds,
weather options, operational risk, and intellectual property asset backed
securities, among other instruments.
    Many of the principles applied to the evaluation of films are based on
work Mr. Sanchez has done which has been reviewed in publications like the
Journal of Risk Finance, Risk Magazine, Technical Analysis of Stocks and
Commodities, and others. Working with a database covering over 50 years of
filmmaking, SAGA has adapted some of these principles for valuing intangible
assets with excellent results, attracting the attention of the most relevant
practitioners of film securitization.
Luis M. Sanchez, the initial President of SAGA Capital, has recently
joined Lehman Brothers Headquarters in New York as Senior Vice President.
    About Ginepri Capital Partners:
    Ginepri Capital Partners, LP is a Fund of Hedge Funds [FoHF], with a
leveraged capacity of USD 4.6bn, based in New York that trades in the US and
international futures, options on futures and forward contracts space, a
diversified portfolio that includes currencies, interest rates and equities.
Headed by S.K. Dean, the firm trades a portfolio that includes financial
futures and forwards designed to hedge against changes in interest rates,
currency, exchange rates and stock index values.
SOURCE  Ginepri Capital Partners