Sam Wyly Launches New Investment Management Firm

Press Announcement Released by Maverick Capital Ltd.
August 30, 1993

Maverick Capital Opens With Annualized Returns Over 40% Since 1990 Dallas entrepreneur Sam Wyly, chairman of both Sterling Software Inc. (NYSE: SSW) and Michaels Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: MIKE) has Monday announced the formation of Maverick Capital Ltd., a private investment management firm.

With Maverick, Wyly is allowing outside investors to invest with an organization that has produced annualized returns over 40 percent, before management fees, since early 1990 when Wyly's investment management activities commenced.

Initially, Maverick offers a domestic fund to no more than 99 partners in the United States while a twin fund, also managed by Maverick, is being opened to non-U.S. investors.

Maverick's performance, obtained from investments as diverse as high-yield U.S. corporate debt, Hong Kong and other “greater China” equities as well as the sovereign bonds of Latin American nations, puts Wyly in a select group of the world's top performing money managers for the past three years.

After returning nearly $2.5 million at June 30, 1993 for every million dollars invested on April 1, 1990, Maverick has evolved from an entirely private operation devoted to managing more than two dozen partnerships and family entities controlled by Sam Wyly and Charles J. Wyly Jr. In Maverick, the two brothers' public operations are starting out with approximately $35 million Wyly money
under management.

“We've also attracted a small team of professionals which includes experts in business and finance and, importantly, who bring to Maverick a great record in managing money for investors,” says Sam Wyly, who serves as managing partner of the new firm.

He is joined by managing directors Charles Wyly, Michael C. French and Evan A. Wyly. Charles Wyly, who serves as vice chairman of both Sterling Software and Michaels Stores, has co-founded several companies with his brother over the past three decades while also working closely with him on strategic planning for their entrepreneurial ventures. French previously served as chairman of the management committee of the law firm of Jackson & Walker in Dallas where he practiced as a corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions partner.

Evan Wyly, formerly served as vice president - mergers and investments of Michaels Stores Inc. where he managed an $80 million investment account. He served from 1988 to 1992 as a managing director of Premier Partners, a merchant banking firm where he was engaged in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and principal investments.

“Maverick” explains the managing partner, “has been created specifically for investors like me, who seek yields substantially above prevailing levels, who expect capital appreciation as a matter of course, and who evaluate their investments from an entrepreneurial perspective that fundamentally
asks: ‘If I were running this business, what would I do?’”

Not only will investors with Maverick stand to benefit from the distinctive Wyly approach, they'll actually put their money to work alongside his. In addition to new capital raised, Maverick's funds will include substantial sums of Wyly money which, as the organization's founder puts it, “May or may not give our investors added comfort, but it enhances our incentive.”

With the goal of generating income and building capital by taking significant positions in “mostly unrelated asset classes” throughout the world, Maverick's initial funds are being directed to institutional investors and high net worth families and individuals, particularly company founders who, in Wyly's experience, are generally too busy running their own businesses to manage their investments.

Wyly points out, “We have the advantage of having built and managed companies in quite dissimilar industries over the past 30 years, so it's logical that we'd apply the same rules to investing that entrepreneurs use in growing their companies. The characteristics, as well as the rates of return, that each of us looks for from our businesses and from our investments are exactly those that we think make Maverick attractive.”

Maverick is the latest in a long line of Wyly ventures which date back to his founding of University Computing Co. (later UCCEL) in 1963, and subsequently Earth Resources, the Bonanza restaurant chain and, in Michaels Stores, the nation's leading arts and crafts superstores, along with one of its largest independent software companies in Sterling Software.

Maverick Capital Ltd. currently offers private investment vehicles which are appropriate for domestic taxable investors, and for non-U.S. investors and tax-exempt U.S. foundations and institutions. The minimum investment in the domestic privately offered funds is $1 million. Maverick also intends to sponsor a public closed-end fund in the future.