Morgan Stanley has launched Cournot Capital, a new principal investment affiliate that will target structured credit. Last month the firm hiredFrank Iacono from Lehman Brothers as ceo of the new venture, according to an official.
The specific investment criteria for the business could not be determined, but market participants noted the business will source internal assets for repackaging, similar to Deutsche Bank's Winchester Capital Principal Finance, and a newly launched effort by ABN AMRO. Cournot is named after 19th century French economist, Augustin Cournot, who was responsible for a bulk of modern game theory. Iacono and other officials at Morgan Stanley declined comment.
Iacono was reportedly working on a credit derivative product company at Lehman, in conjunction with Evanston, Ill.-based fund Magnetar Capital. The CDPC is still set to go ahead, but officials at Magnetar declined comment and Lehman officials did not comment by press time.
