Where is Fortress Investment Group's (FIG) Wes Edens Now?

Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG) is trading far below its lofty IPO price of $18.50 and the $35 it reached on its first day of trading, sporting a market cap of $14 billion.

Fortress was well-received by the public markets back in early '07. Insiders, including Howard Rubin and Douglas Jacobs caught the euphoric moment and spent over $2 million purchasing shares in the public market at price around $28. Their investments have now lost over 95% in value.

Now, let's get back to the point of this story. Obviously, Fortress's stock has tumbled and investors are incredibly upset, but at the end October CEO, Wes Edens, told a group of investors gathered at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York that Fortress was an extraordinary, undervalued investment opportunity.

At the presentation, Edens told the audience that the market had cheapened the value of Fortress's portfolio companies so much that he was willing to buy them all back. Not only did Wes Edens say he'd buy his portfolio companies, he "joked" that if FIG fell much further, to $1, he would institute a hostile takeover of his company, the WSJ reported. Fortress is now trading sub $1, where is Wes now?

Back when Wes Edens made the above statement, Fortress was trading right around $3 and after he made that comment over the next couple days Fortress's stock rose to the high $4 range.

Wes Edens would have to pay approximately $94 million to buy all the Class A shares and $309 million to buy the Class B shares.

Fortress has been trading under a $1 and actually hit a low of $0.77, but Mr. Edens has not stepped up yet to take the company private or buy additional shares.

People close to Edens did confirm to the WSJ that he prefers to keep FIG public. Reportedly, Edens is fond of a saying he heard from his father, "you can't go back and change what you had for breakfast." In other words, even though Wes said he'd take the company private, people close to him do not expect that will happen.

However, Edens did tell the investors he'd make a different decision about going public again. "In this environment today, I would make a different decision." He said that there are fewer benefits to being a publicly traded company in today's uncertain markets.

Fortress is trading like a dead stock and with much trouble still on the horizon, Fortress shareholders should expect darker days ahead, unless Wes Edens lives up to his words and buys stock and/or his company back.
-JR
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Fortress Investment Group LLC (Fortress) is a global alternative asset manager that raises, invests and manages private equity funds, hedge funds and publicly traded alternative investment vehicles.

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