Amaranth Says It Plans Liquidation After More Hedge Fund Losses (Katherin Burton & Jenny Strasburg)

  By Katherine Burton and Jenny Strasburg

  Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Amaranth Advisors LLC suspended redemptions in order to sell off its remaining assets after losses at its two main hedge funds continued in the past week.

  The funds are down as much as 70 percent for the month, the firm said in a letter to investors. Redemption requests scheduled for today and Oct. 31 won't be honored, preventing investors from withdrawing any money for at least another month.

  ``Our current intention is to dispose of the remaining positions in the funds' portfolios in an orderly fashion over time, seeking to maximize sale proceeds and to make periodic cash distributions to investors on a pro rata basis,'' founder Nicholas Maounis, 43, said in the letter late yesterday.

  Amaranth is the Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund manager that imploded almost two weeks ago after making wrong-way bets on the direction of natural-gas prices. The firm, which managed $9.5 billion of assets as recently as August, now has lost about $6.5 billion in the biggest hedge fund meltdown.

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