Cowen Group, according to its materials, “provides alternative investment management vehicles through hedge funds, fund of funds, real estate and cash management investment programs and leading growth-oriented investment banking, research and brokerage capabilities.”  Cowen Latitude is a growth-focused mid-tier investment banking platform, with particular focuses on M&A advisory, capital markets and private placement expertise, especially in the alternative energy, consumer, healthcare, industrial, media, TMT and aerospace/defense sectors. Ramius, the alternative investment management business that Cohen founded in 1994, merged with Cowen Group in November 2009, with Cohen becoming chairman and CEO of the new enlarged group, and flagbearer for many of its new initiatives.

Cohen himself noted that he has been coming to Asia Pacific ever since the late 1980s, when his former firm was a key early brokerage player in the region. With the new Cowen vehicle, he said, “we’re happy that we now have a platform we can do more from.”

Cohen will always be remembered as the ‘losing’ bidder against the somewhat Pyrrhic victory of Henry Kravis and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in the LBO bidding war for RJR Nabisco Inc. in 1988, and the other leading figure in the chronicle of the legendary $25 billion deal, Barbarians At The Gates. Remembering the days when he, Kravis, David Bonderman and other private equity prime movers were carving out their careers in the close-knit circles of Wall Street, he said, “we all grew up together.”