Alternative credit-focused firm Selwood Asset Management has hired former Verrazzano Capital manager Karim Moussalem to launch a new equity long/short strategy.
Alternative credit-focused firm Selwood Asset Management has hired former Verrazzano Capital manager Karim Moussalem to launch a new equity long/short strategy.
Moussalem, who was a co-founder and portfolio manager at Verrazzano, joins as chief investment officer for equities at Selwood, and will pair up with ex-Verrazzano colleague Kevin Guillot who will be a portfolio manager on the strategy.
The new fund will launch on global asset management seeder Investcorp-Tages’ UCITS platform later this quarter. Investcorp-Tages was a seed investor in London-based Selwood when it launched in 2015, and continues to invest in other Selwood-managed funds.
The equity long/short fund will be a separate and standalone offering from Selwood’s existing credit strategy, according to a person familiar with the matter. Neither Selwood CIO and founder Sofiane Gharred nor the firm’s core credit team will be involved in the management of the new equity-focused strategy.
Instead, the new fund will utilise spare capacity on Selwood’s business operating platform, allowing Moussalem to focus squarely on equity investing.
Meanwhile, Selwood – which today manages more than USD2.4 billion in assets – will maintain its core focus on market neutral credit opportunities in Europe and North America.
The new strategy broadens Selwood’s business model, and follows the opening of Selwood’s Paris office in 2020 to run long-only credit mandates.
Before Verrazzano Capital, Moussalem – who has more than 20 years of equity trading experience – spent a decade at Goldman Sachs, where he was latterly co-head of Europe Delta One trading. More recently, he had been a managing director at Deutsche Bank.
The Investcorp-Tages multi-manager joint venture was launched in May 2020 by Investcorp and Tages Capital, with a view to building a global absolute return platform. The global multi-manager firm provides customised portfolios, seeding and other investment products for institutional investors worldwide, spanning pension and sovereign wealth funds, foundations, endowments, family offices, insurance companies and other financial institutions.
