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July 19, 2005 -- The hard charging ex-marine with the German-sounding French name, Guy Wyser-Pratte, is plunging his investment activism full throttle into the limited arena of corporate governance-dedicated investment funds. Wyser-Pratte plans to launch the publicly listed Wyser-Pratte Euro Value Fund this September.

But the fund won't carry its initial moniker, Global Governance Partners, because a trusted colleague, Sophie L'Helias, Washington, D.C. Founder and President of FGIS, a Paris-based independent corporate governance consulting firm, convinced him that corporate governance is only one tool he uses to align the "interests of management with those of shareholders," a favorite slogan of W-P's. So why not put governance in the title? "People know what Value means," Wyser-Pratte told T.T. in an exclusive interview today. Active investors like WPM specialize in honing in on the corporate governance deficits that keep a company's value - thus share value - depressed and take action to wipe them out.

Wyser-Pratte has been active in corporate governance investing since 1974, according to his daughter, Joelle Wyser-Pratte, who also manages her own funds. "Returns on corporate governance investments have been what has really driven WPM," she said.

Her father has handled 60 deals over the past 12 years, all purely corporate governance driven. So why have a fund now? "Corporate governance became more of what he did rather than less," she told T.T. "He sees it as changing the economic landscape, starting with one company at a time." The efforts she says also bring the entire economic culture of countries WPM has operated in into an "equity culture."

WPM's Euro Value Fund will focus on stocks in Continental Europe, as its core holdings, which will vary from 10 - 15 positions, with some onshore and offshore holdings, the latter of which will be handled out of the Cayman Islands.

CitiGroup will be the prime broker, supplying clearing services also. The Bank of Bermuda will act as custodial bank.

The dollar-denominated fund will trade on the Irish Stock Exchange, in Dublin.

Wyser-Pratte is putting $20 million of his own money into the fund, which will launch with a $500 million initial traunch. That first investment round will have a lock up of one-year hard and one-year soft investment. The second traunch, also for $500 million, will carry a two-year soft and three-year hard commitment. The Wyser-Pratte Euro Value Fund has a $2 million investment minimum.