Colorado’s newest public company isn’t big in size. But it has big money backing it.
Centennial Bank Holdings Inc., which owns local financial institutions such as Centennial Bank of the West, Collegiate Peaks Bank and Guaranty Bank and Trust Co., counts two of the country’s top hedge-fund managers among its investors.
Oz Management LLC holds 10.2 percent of the company and Caxton Corp. holds 9.2 percent, according to investment filings made last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Caxton was founded by Bruce Kovner, whom Forbes magazine ranks as the country’s 93rd richest person, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Kovner used a $3,000 credit card line to trade soybeans at age 31 and went on to build up $11 billion under management, according to Forbes.
Hedge fund manager Daniel Och, the man behind Oz, is no slouch, either. Och left Goldman Sachs to start Oz-Ziff Capital Management in 1994, and his group of funds manages more than $10 billion, putting it among the 20 largest hedge funds in the world.
Och also made headlines in the spring as an investor in Manchester United, the popular British soccer team.
Why is there so much outside interest in a bank-holding company focused on the northern Front Range with a market value of $700 million?
“There are a number of sophisticated institutional investors who have invested in us and who follow us,” said Zsolt Bessko, the bank’s general counsel. “That is due to John Eggemeyer and the following he has.”
Eggemeyer, a California resident who worked for a few years as a banker in Colorado, is Centennial’s chairman and CEO. Through his investment firm, Castle Creek Capital, Eggemeyer last year purchased Centennial Bank Holdings of Fort Collins and Guaranty Corp. of Denver.
Castle Creek spent $520 million in cash for the two, a price tag some observers called rich. But Eggemeyer raised the funds in two private placements that Oz and Caxton backed, along with mutual fund groups including Franklin Mutual Advisers, Aim Advisors, Wellington Management Co. and Dreman Value Management, according to Bloomberg LP, an online information service. Eggemeyer couldn’t be reached Friday for comment.
The investors have given no indication that they are looking to take a controlling interest in the bank, Bessko said. To do so, they would have to work through a bank-holding company. Centennial’s shares began trading Oct. 3 on the Nasdaq market.
“Their primary purpose is just to invest,” Bessko said.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
