London, April 28---The Man Group, a British hedge fund, is betting that investors will want to read more than the latest how-to- get -rich-quick business book. In a five-year deal worth roughly $3.6 million announced last week, Man has agreed to sponsor the Booker Prize for Fiction, which will be renamed the Man Booker Prize. Since creating the award in 1969, Booker P.L.G., a British food group, in June 2000, executives began considering attracting outside sponsors. Man will be the first of these. Bill Grimsey, the chief of the Big Food Group, saw little business sense in a link between a food supplier and a literary prize, explained Dotti Irving, a spokeswoman for the Booker Prize foundation. Such dissimilarities   have not reduced Man's enthusiasm for the prize which is expected to be open for the first time to American authors. David Browne, a spokesman for Man, said most of the firm's investors are high-net-worth individuals who appreciate literature. "The people who buy hedge funds," Mr. Browne said, "also read." Under the new agreement, authors will get more money. The winner of the annual prize, to be awarded in October, will receive $73,000 , up from $30,000 the Australian writer Peter Carey won last year for his novel "True History of the Kelley Gang." The six short-listed authors will each receive $3,600, up from $1,500. Having a hedge fund as a backer apparently has its perks. . Who is the spokesman for Man?
David Browne Peter Carey Bill Grimsey Dotti Irving