Alesco Financial Inc. (NYSE:AFN)

Alesco Financial Inc. (NYSE:AFN) is a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) managed by Cohen & Company. The REIT’s investment objectives are to provide shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns and predictable cash distributions through a leveraged portfolio in targeted asset classes, which include:

• TruPS issued by banks and insurance companies,
• Middle market leveraged loans, and
• Asset-backed securities and mortgage loans.

As investment manager, Cohen & Company offers extensive experience in each of the REIT’s targeted asset classes. We have arranged over $9 billion of TruPS financings, capturing a 35% market share, up from 13% in 2003. Our years of activity in the middle market have positioned us to take advantage of this under-covered market’s unique opportunities. Through our Strategos subsidiary, we manage roughly $10 billion in asset-backed security CDOs, and have advised on over $6 billion of whole loan mortgage acquisitions and securitizations.

Each of the REIT’s underlying asset classes offers a variety of structural advantages to shareholders. Together they make up a leveraged portfolio of securities designed to provide diversification along with relatively high yields compared to other, similarly rated collateral.

Alesco Financial Trust completed an $111 million Rule 144A Private Equity offering on January 31, 2006. In April of 2006, Alesco entered into a merger agreement with Sunset Financial Resources, Inc., a specialty finance company which operated as a REIT and was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SFO". The merger closed on October 6, 2006 and the combined company changed it's name to Alesco Financial Inc. and began trading on the NYSE under the symbol "AFN". In November of 2006, Alesco Financial Inc. completed a secondary public offering and raised an additional $273 million of equity.

We invite you to visit the Alesco Financial Inc. website for more information.