Fortress exec bags $300 million deal

Fortress Investment Group LLC has forked over a $300 million share grant to one of its star traders to keep him from bolting the publicly traded hedge fund, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Adam Levinson, who has been with Fortress since 2002, will join five principals who hold around $3 billion (or 77%) of the stock in the Chicago-based hedge fund, which went public last year, the Journal said. Mr. Levinson helps oversee a staff of 170 that place bets on a variety of global investments for the firm's $8.8 billion global macro hedge fund. Fortress has struggled from the effects of the credit crunch since going public in 2007, losing $68.9 million, or 74 cents a share, in first-quarter earnings (InvestmentNews May 8). The Fortress press office did not immediately return a call for comment on Mr. Levinson’s reported share grant deal.