Standard General

Standard General

Soohyung Kim launched Standard General in New York in 2007 as an SEC-registered investment adviser. The firm operates as an event-driven, opportunistic manager, explicitly seeking influence by taking control positions in public companies where it believes it can help resolve the structural or operational issues depressing valuations. Unlike a traditional long-short equity fund that manages risk through diversification, Standard General concentrates its capital and attention on a small number of situations where it can work directly with management to reposition businesses. The firm invests dynamically across the capital structure, looking "in the seams" between debt and equity and between public and private markets. Its strategy spans long and short positions in both equities and credit, using shorting to generate alpha and dynamically hedge during periods of market volatility. Standard General's most visible public campaign has been its multi-year effort to consolidate and transform US regional casino assets — it controls Bally's Corporation, where Soo Kim serves as Chairman, and has pursued acquisitions of other gaming operators. The firm also deploys capital into distressed retail, media, and special situations where mid-market complexity deters larger competitors. Standard General runs a lean operation from its Fifth Avenue office, with 17 total employees and seven investment professionals. The firm oversees assets for institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals, and employees. In recent activity, the firm has been engaged in the ongoing restructuring and strategic repositioning of Bally's, including a take-private bid and development of a flagship casino resort in Chicago — a project that represents one of the largest single-asset gaming developments in the US. Standard General's structural differentiator is its willingness to take operational control of publicly listed mid-cap companies and run them as if they were private equity portfolio holdings. Rather than agitating from the outside as an activist hedge fund, Kim's team inserts itself into management, boardrooms, and strategic planning. This blurring of the line between distressed public-markets investor and private equity operator is uncommon among firms of Standard General's size and regulatory status, creating a posture closer to a holding company than a conventional fund manager.