20 private equity and hedge fund businesses/managers family offices are talking about

Family Capital has spoken to around 30 private investment offices around the world on which firms/individuals in the world of private equity and hedge funds that have recently gained their attention. Below is a list of these businesses and individuals in alphabetical order.   

Agilon Capital Management

Private Equity

Based: Durham, North Carolina

Agilon was set up in 2014 by Richard Griffin, who previously worked on the private equity side for the Pritzker Group, the private investment office of Tony and J.B. Pritzker. So Agilon has a good pedigree and understands working with private investment groups. Although small, Agilon has done some interesting deals among its favoured areas – old economy lower-mid-market businesses. It takes a patient-capital approach to enhance the value of its portfolio businesses.

AEM Unternehmerkapital

Private Equity

Based: Munich

Specialist investment group AEM works with a few of Germany’s wealthiest families and targets majority stakes in the lower mid-market of Mittelstand companies. It models itself on a family office and takes a patient capital approach to many of its investments.

Antara Capital Partners

Hedge Fund

Based: New York City

Launched last year, hedge fund Antara Capital Partners was set up by star manager Himanshu Gulati, with backing from the Blackstone Group. Antara Capital focuses on event-driven credit and special situation equities.

BDT Capital

Private Equity

Based: Chicago

Byron Trott has a lot to live after Warren Buffett called the Chicago-based financier his favourite banker. After Buffett’s comments, the mystique around Trott continues to grow, particularly with family offices and family businesses. His firm, BDT Capital has attracted a considerable amount of family office/private investment money to its funds since it was launched 10 years ago.

Blueshift Asset Management

Hedge Fund

Based: Red Bank, New Jersey

Launched in early 2018, Blueshift Asset Management was set up by star manager Mani Mahjouri. He and his team at Blueshift have been backed by New York private equity group White Oak Equity Partners. Blueshift follows a quantitative hedge fund strategy, which incorporates statistical arbitrage and high-frequency trading.

City Capital Ventures

Private Equity

Based: Chicago

Chicago-based City Capital Ventures was set up by Dan Kipp, who co-founded Winona Capital Management before going out on his own again. The boutique private equity group is beginning to be noticed and is attracting more interest from family offices. Last year, City Capital closed three new investments and in January 2019 made its biggest investment to date – the 100% acquisition of the Redberry Group, the largest Burger King franchisee in Canada.

DSC Meridian Capital

Hedge Fund

Based: New York City

Set up less than a year ago by ex-Paulson & Co manager, Sheru Chowdhry, DSC Meridian is an opportunistic, event-driven credit investment hedge fund.

EQT

Private Equity

Based: Stockholm

EQT is one of the best performing private equity groups in Europe, attracting considerable amounts of family office money. It has raised more than €50 billion in 28 funds, many of them achieving top quartile performance. It’s EQT VIII fund closed with a record €10.7 billion last year. For family offices, EQT has the added advantage that its biggest shareholder is Investor, the Wallenberg family’s investment group.

IK Investment Partners

Private Equity

Based: London

IK Investment Partners has been around for 30 years and has established a solid reputation as a mid-sized private equity group. London-based, IK Investment targets mostly mid-market businesses in northern continental Europe. Its funds tend to be oversubscribed to, and family offices are among many of their limited partners.

L Catterton

Private Equity

Based: Greenwich, Connecticut

Like EQT, L Catterton is a private equity group linked to one of Europe’s wealthiest families, the Arnaults, who owns the luxury products group, LVMH. Created in 2016, when Bernard Arnault’s LVMH and his investment group took a 40% stake in the already established Catterton, the private equity firm has six funds, targetting high growth and mid-market businesses, particularly in the consumer and luxury products sectors.

Leonard Green & Partners

Private Equity

Based: Los Angeles

Leonard hasn’t launched a new fund since attracting $9.6 billion it raised for its Green Equity Investors VII fund in 2016, but it remains popular with family office investors. LGP tends to invest in big-name businesses, like its stake in Whole Foods in 2008, which made its LPs serious money despite the acquisition been made in one of the most tumultuous years in finance.

Mudrick Capital Management

Hedge Fund

Based: New York City

Founded nearly 10 years ago, Mudrick under the guidance of its founder and CIO Jason Mudrick has managed to grow assets under management every year since its inception. Family offices like Mudrick’s distressed credit and deep value event-driven investing themes, and the fact that its investments have a low-risk profile.

Nordic Capital

Private Equity

Based: Stockholm

Nordic Capital is one of Northern Europe’s biggest private equity groups and has gained a reputation for solid success since it was founded 30 years ago. Its ninth and latest fund was heavily oversubscribed to, attracting more than €4 billion in commitments. Family offices comprise around 15% of its limited partners and that percentage has gone up significantly in the last five years.

Orlando Management

Private Equity

Based: Munich

The Munich-based boutique private equity group did some interesting deals in 2018, including buying out two classic Mittelestand businesses, HIT Holzindustrie Torgau and SLR Group.

Partners Group

Private Equity

Based: Baar, Switzerland

The Swiss private equity firm continues to attract serious sums of money from institutional investors and family offices.  Last year, it attracted a record €13.3 billion in new commitments, and it has total assets under management of €72.8 billion as of the end of last year.

Point72 Asset Management

Hedge Fund

Based: Stamford, Connecticut

Steve Cohen’s hedge fund/family office was allowed to take outside money last year, and family offices are beginning to take note because of Cohen’s considerable hedge fund money-making skills. He has a team of more than 1,000 people, which work optimizing returns in various hedge fund strategies, including long/short, macro, and systematic strategies. Cohen’s previous hedge fund SAC was fined by the SEC for insider trading. After folding SAC, Cohen set up Point72 as effectively his family office. Now it’s a hedge-fund focused investment firm with considerable firepower.

Rip Road Capital Partners

Hedge Fund/Private Equity

Based: Boston

Rip Road was set up by ex-Bain Capital public equity specialist Dennis Goldstein at the back end of last year. The hedge fund follows a long/short strategy of global public equities, but is also will invest some money in private equity.

Trikon Asset Management

Hedge Fund

Based: Hong Kong

Gaurav Grover founded Trikon late last year and is attracting interest from investors. Grover was previously at Moore Capital where he helped set up their Hong Kong office. Trikon follows a long-short portfolio focused strategy that concentrates on Asian equities or equities outside of Asia where Trikon believes it has an edge by being based in Asia.

Triple Gate Capital

Hedge Fund

Based: Cedarhurst, New York

Set up by ex-SAC hedge fund analyst, Norbert Gottesman in 2015, Triple Gate has recently opened its doors to outside money and investors in the US are getting interested. Triple Gate says it is a long-biased healthcare hedge fund with a value focus, and does not use leverage to enhance returns.   

Wolf Hill Capital Management

Hedge Fund

Based: New York City

Wolf Hill Capital Management was set up early last year by star hedge fund manager Gary Lehrman. Wolf Hall follows a long and short strategy, primarily in North American equities with an emphasis on value investments. It will also invest opportunistically, both long and short, in stressed and distressed fixed-income corporate securities.

Disclaimer

None of these firms written about in this article should be construed as an endorsement or recommendation by Family Capital. Any investment made is the responsibility of the investor, and Family Capital bears no responsibility for that decision.