Real Estate Deal Maker Gave His Hedge Fund A Leg Up

Keith F. Barket, the global head of Angelo, Gordon & Co.'s real-estate
group, came from a family of property investors and was quick to
recognize the bargains that abounded in the wake of the early 1990s
recession.

Angelo Gordon was his partner on many of those deals. One day, the
investment firm called him up and offered him a job.

"He truly had it all—an analyst, a mentor and a leader," said John
Angelo, co-founder and chief executive of the New York-based firm.

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Dan Bigelow
Keith F. Barket

Mr. Barket, who died Wednesday at age 49 of peritoneal mesothelioma, a
rare form of cancer of the abdominal lining, vaulted Angelo Gordon,
one of the world's largest hedge-fund firms, into the top league of
private-equity real-estate investment.

Angelo Gordon now has more than 50 professionals working in its
real-estate department. During the past 17 years, the firm has
invested more than $5 billion of equity in about 300 deals, and Mr.
Barket has helped it build a major presence in China.

A St. Louis native, he was known for his sanguine personality and
down-to-earth manners in real-estate and private-equity circles. "You
always knew where you stood with him," said prominent hotelier Ian
Schrager. "It's a breath of fresh air in our business."

During the more recent real-estate downturn, many fund managers and
property developers have been struggling with heavily indebted deals
made at the top of the market. But Mr. Barket's team emerged
relatively unscathed and has become an active buyer of distressed real
estate.

In the past 18 months, Angelo Gordon has invested more than $1 billion
of equity in about 50 deals, including the high-profile purchase of
the Helmsley Carlton House hotel and apartment building in Manhattan.
In addition, the firm is one of the few private-equity fund managers
that has successfully raised money. It recently closed a $625 million
fund to invest in Asia's property markets.

Both Mr. Barket's father and brother have been active in real-estate
investment. A graduate of Georgetown University, he got his M.B.A.
from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and was
active during the 1990s doing deals with the Resolution Trust Corp.,
the government agency set up to liquidate assets, mostly real estate,
seized from failed thrifts.

Mr. Barket joined Angelo Gordon in 1997 and did his first major deal
one year later amid the market turbulence caused by the Russia debt
crisis: the $60 million purchase of the Chelsea Market complex in
Manhattan. The firm converted the buildings from manufacturing to
office and retail. It has attracted tenants like Food Network and
Oxygen Network, and today, by some estimates, is valued at more than
$850 million.

"Keith saw the fantastic long-term opportunities in the property,"
recalled Adam Schwartz, who heads the firm's U.S. real-estate
investment.

Mr. Barket was an avid tennis player and was proud of his partial
Lebanese heritage, his family and friends said. "His life was a life
of celebration," said his younger brother, Sol. "He was a realist, and
he was always the one who would say, cut your losses and move on with
life."

Peritoneal Mesothelioma Gene Expression May Predict Survival

Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare cancer of the membranes that line the abdominal cavity.  Like other forms of mesothelioma, it is caused by exposure to fibers of the mineral asbestos.  While it is almost always fatal, people with peritoneal mesothelioma tend to exhibit very different responses to the disease.  Writing in the journal Cancer, the Maryland researchers note, "There is marked variability in its clinical behavior.  Some patients die rapidly, and others survive for many years."

The researchers set out to determine reasons for this variability and believe the answer may lie in signaling pathways that tell cancer cells to grow and proliferate.  Experimenting on tumor samples from 41 mesothelioma patients, the researchers analyzed the genes expressed by each set of cells.  What they found was an important difference in the 'signaling chemicals' that are responsible for protein synthesis and RNA production inside cells. 

In one group, the signaling pathways known as Phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) and the closely interacting mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) were overexpressed.  In cases where the genes produced by these pathways were present, the peritoneal mesothelioma patients had survived for a median of 24 months.

But in cases where these pathways, and their corresponding genes, were not found, the mesothelioma patients had a median survival of 69.5 months.  To further test their theory that these cell pathways were linked to cancer cell proliferation and prognosis, the researchers used a chemical to inhibit the P13K and mTOR pathways in cell samples.  They found that, when these pathways were inhibited, cell signaling and cell proliferation were significantly reduced.

Taken together, the researchers conclude that these two experiments point to the value of analyzing gene expression pathways in patients diagnosed with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.  They write, "Targeting the PI3K and mTOR signaling pathways may have significant therapeutic value in patients with MPM." 

The study was conducted by the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and will be published in an upcoming issue of Cancer.

MesotheliomaWeb.org Reports Mesothelioma Symptoms

Mesothelioma, more properly known as malignant mesothelioma, is a type of cancer occurring in the mesothelial tissues. These are epithelial tissues that line the body's thoracic and abdominal cavities – also known as primordial cavities – and surround and protect the lungs, heart and abdominal organs.

 

Mesothelioma's only known cause is asbestos, and 75 percent of cases occur in the mesothelial lining around the lungs. Only about five percent of cases occur as pericardial mesothelioma, in the lining around the heart. Peritoneal mesothelioma, in the abdomen, accounts for about 20 percent of cases.

 

Medical professionals have long regarded mesothelioma as a "silent killer" disease for its tendency to lie dormant for a long period – sometimes up to 50 years – without producing any specific symptoms, after which it advances rapidly to a highly aggressive form of cancer.

 

Statistics indicate that, from 1999 to 2005, the mortality rate from this disease reached 18,068 in the U.S. alone, with 14,591 of those deaths occurring among males and the balance among females.

 

Asbestos mining and manufacture in the U.S. declined from 885,000 tons in 1973 to 1,609 tons in 2008. Today, even though asbestos mining and manufacture has moved overseas for the most part, the legacy effects of decades of U.S. use – in everything from construction products to oven gloves – cause about 10,000 American deaths a year, 2,500 of those from mesothelioma. This puts it on a footing akin to skin cancer in terms of commonality, according to one source.

 

Asbestos fibers get into the body, and the mesothelial tissues, either by inhaling or by ingesting. This can be as simple as swallowing saliva, and – because the body can't get rid of asbestos fibers the way it does some other toxins – the fibers remain, creating irritations that lead to tissue lesions and, in some instances, to malignant tumors.

 

Mesothelioma is exacerbated by smoking. When it begins displaying typical symptoms early in life (i.e., at age 30 or before), the course of the disease is more rapid and more aggressive than it is among those who display symptomatology near or during their retirement years.

 

The symptoms of mesothelioma vary, of course, with location. Victims of pleural mesothelioma may experience a hacking, dry cough or coughing up blood. They may also have difficulty swallowing. In some cases, night sweats or fevers of unknown etiology may also occur. Fatigue is quite common, as is weight loss as the disease progresses and sufferers begin to have difficulty breathing, even when resting.

 

At this stage, pains in the chest, diaphragm or rib area begin to manifest, possibly along with tangible lumps under skin on the chest. In addition to difficulty, breathing may itself become painful.

When mesothelioma occurs in the abdomen, similar symptoms occur, though patients are unlikely to experience significant difficulty breathing, and the pain – instead of being in the chest – is in the abdomen. Peritoneal mesothelioma sufferers will instead experience abdominal symptoms, including diarrhea or constipation, nausea, and possibly vomiting. Fatigue remains a constant, as it does with almost all forms of cancer.

Pericardial mesothelioma produces symptoms that are site-specific; e.g., an irregular heartbeat and chest pain. It also causes difficulty breathing, fever of unknown origin, night sweats and fatigue.

If patients are sufficiently healthy, doctors may recommend surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, alone or in combination, though these treatments are largely viewed as palliative rather than curative; that is, improving breathing and reducing pain, though not actually eradicating the tumor.

These treatments succeed in adding only a few months to the typical mesothelioma patient's prognosis, which is about one year to live. However, newer treatments like gene therapy and photodynamic therapy (the use of light) show improved prognoses.

Oncologists are also experimenting with multimodal treatments via clinical trials, and there is hope that a "perfect storm" of methods will eventually be discovered that eradicates mesothelioma entirely.

Woman Set To Receive $7M in Damages for Peritoneal Mesothelioma

According to an appellate court ruling, Exxon Mobil is to pay $7 million in damages to Bonnie Anderson from Berkeley Heights, NJ, who contracted mesothelioma after washing her husband’s clothes that were contaminated with asbestos. Even her husband, John Anderson, is entitled to receive $500,000 from the company. She had previously been granted $100,000 by the first jury, though the damages were reconsidered in the court of appeals.

John worked with Exxon Linden Bayway Refinery for 35 years. During the first six years, from 1969 to 1975, he was assigned the job of removing insulation to attach pumps and filters.

There was apparent neglect regarding employee safety at Exxon. Although several safety meetings were held for the workers, they were not provided with any protection like a respirator or uniform. The only thing they were provided with was helmets. According to the court, no worker knew that the copious amounts of dust resulting from their work contained asbestos and that they could develop serious illnesses if exposed. This toxic silicate mineral, when inhaled, can have injurious effects on the body. Asbestos related diseases like mesothelioma and asbestosis can be easily contracted if the mineral is inhaled or ingested over a period of time.

John was not aware that the insulation he was required to remove contained toxic asbestos fibers, which is why he did not wear a protective uniform while working. Bonnie, before washing his work clothes, used to shake the dust off. This was probably when she inhaled or ingested asbestos fibers which led to her developing the virtually incurable form of cancer, mesothelioma. She too was employed at the refinery for a period of 11 years, starting in 1975. She began to experience severe swelling and pain in her stomach in 2001. She was finally diagnosed, and came to understand that her suffering was due to peritoneal mesothelioma, a less common form of mesothelioma which affects the lining of the abdomen.

The case is the first secondary exposure case in which a jury verdict was upheld since the year 2006, when the court came out with the decision that gave people the power to sue the companies liable for illnesses resulting from secondary exposure to asbestos.

The ruling reminds companies to offer workplace safety to their employees, who are at a high risk of contracting asbestos-related diseases, and tracking toxic material into their homes, endangering their families. Victims of mesothelioma are entitled to receive compensation from the companies responsible for their illness, for which a qualified mesothelioma lawyer is required to obtain maximum compensation.

According to Kevin Allexon, spokesperson of Exxon Mobil Corp, the company has not yet reached a decision whether to appeal the ruling in the highest state court.

Source: borrilaw.com