When GLG Partners co-founder Noam Gottesman told investment bankers Joseph Perella and Peter Weinberg last spring that he wanted advice on selling a stake in his hedge fund firm to Freedom Acquisition Holdings, a special-purpose acquisition corporation, the bankers were a bit puzzled. London-based GLG was a giant in the hedge fund business, and SPACs — essentially, shells that go public to raise capital and buy operating companies — historically had been a financing device favored by shady operators. But Perella Weinberg Partners took the assignment anyway. The deal, a reverse merger that gave Freedom a 28 percent stake in GLG and valued the asset manager at $3.4 billion, was announced in late June.

Since that deal closed November 2 and GLG became a public company, the initial investors in Freedom have...