AIG Investments and Larch Lane Advisors, the alternative investment affiliate of Old Mutual Asset Management, have formed a joint venture to make seed investments in hedge funds.<
AIG Investments and Larch Lane Advisors, the alternative investment affiliate of Old Mutual Asset Management, have formed a joint venture to make seed investments in hedge funds.
According to the partners, the joint venture aims to capitalise on synergies between AIG Investments’ global alternative investment and hedge fund capabilities and Larch Lane’s specialisation in hedge fund seeding.
The joint venture’s targets may include hedge fund start-ups, teams leaving established hedge funds, and established hedge funds in need of restructuring. The joint venture anticipates investing between USD50m and USD200m per deal across a wide range of hedge fund strategies and geographical regions.
AIG Investments has been investing in hedge funds for 26 years and currently manages more than USD10bn in assets through more than 130 hedge funds, including products from emerging managers. Larch Lane has made a total of 22 seed investments over the past seven years.
‘This venture gives us the opportunity not only to invest with up-and-coming managers, but also to participate more directly in the profit growth of a rapidly-growing industry,’ says Robert Discolo, head of the hedge fund strategies group at AIG Investments.
Mark Jurish, Larch Lane’s chief executive, adds: ‘Talented investors are leaving large hedge funds to start their own businesses, but many of them have not been able to reach their capital targets. The current supply/demand imbalance for start-up hedge fund capital represents the best seeding opportunity I’ve ever seen.’
AIG Investments, the asset management arm of American International Group, specialises in equity, fixed income, hedge, private equity and real estate investments. Its member companies managed more than USD750bn in assets and employed more than 2,000 professionals in 46 offices worldwide at the end of March.
Founded by Jurish in 1999, Larch Lane Advisors is an advisory firm focusing primarily on investment in early-stage alternative funds, constructing diversified portfolios of hedge funds and negotiating and structures seed investments in hedge funds. In 2005 the firm became an affiliate of Old Mutual Asset Management, the holding company for 20 boutique asset managers and the Old Mutual Asset Management Trust Company.
