Bourgeon Capital Management Launches New Hedge Fund.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2000

Companies in Technology, Communications, Media, Healthcare

And Energy Sectors To Be Targeted, Among Others

Bourgeon Capital Management, LLC (BCM), an investment management firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles, today announced the launch of a new hedge fund called Bourgeon Partners, L.P. The Fund invests primarily in equities of U.S. publicly traded companies. It holds positions that represent specific themes, both economically and politically, in the U.S. and abroad. Potential areas for investment include technology, communications, data transmission via broadband technology, healthcare, media and oil and gas.

"As we look to the remainder of 2000 and beyond, we will be investing in companies, which in our view, have the highest growth potential as well as those that we believe represent the best values in the marketplace," said John Zaro, managing member of Bourgeon Capital Management, LLC, who founded the firm about a year ago. "We intend to be opportunistic in our trading strategy, taking positions in numerous sectors of the economy, including investments in companies that are utilizing the Internet to their best advantage."

Jeff Kiley, Bourgeon's managing director who will run the Fund from BCM's office in Los Angeles, elaborated, saying BCM "will execute a highly disciplined trading strategy for our high net worth clients. In some cases, this will mean holding core positions in growth-oriented companies for the long-term. In other instances, we intend to take positions where we believe the markets, for a variety of reasons, have underpriced certain securities, which tends to occur in cyclical areas of the market."

Both Zaro and Kiley explained that they will strive to take full advantage of short-term aberrations in stock prices resulting from the sometimes irrational behavior in the marketplace. Such behavior occurs, according to BCM, when investors sell positions in companies because of short-term negative news, even though the companies have strong long-term prospects. "Such aberrations often provide opportunities to buy securities at substantial discounts to their long-term value," Kiley concluded.

Zaro and Kiley - who have 40 years of combined experience in the asset management business - stressed that they will use their many contacts in the corporate world and on Wall Street, as well as their extensive research backgrounds, to exploit new investment opportunities.

Short Selling 

In addition, the Fund will explore areas where the markets are overvalued and take positions on the short side. Given the recently high level of market volatility, Bourgeon believes that there are attractive "short" opportunities in today's market, both individually and as groups. When appropriate, Bourgeon will also initiate "matched" trades for the Fund, buying a security it considers to be under-priced and shorting one it considers overvalued.

As is the case with all its investments, Bourgeon will carefully consider the tax consequences of its trading activity on its high net worth client base.

"We believe the launch of Bourgeon Partners offers a perfect complement to our main asset management business, which stresses growth at a reasonable price," Zaro concluded. "Thus far, our clients have expressed strong interest in the new Fund because it offers them an attractive addition to their current portfolios."

While the trading focus of the Fund will be in U.S. markets, the Fund will also selectively invest internationally. Under such circumstances, BCM will tend to use publicly traded ADRs.

Bourgeon Capital Management, LLC is an investment management firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Its principals - John Zaro and Jeffrey Kiley - have long performance records that have been consistently outstanding. Before joining forces, Zaro and Kiley worked for several blue chip firms in California and New York, including Warburg Pincus, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers.

For more information about Bourgeon Partners and Bourgeon Capital Management, contact John Zaro at 212-984-6208.