Alternative asset managers AM Investment Partners and Bam Capital have agreed to combine in a merger of equals, with each firm contributing its respective portfolios, management teams and infrastructure.
The newly combined entity will be called AM Investment Partners.
The firm will be run by Bam Capital co-founders Ross Berman and Hal Mintz and AM Investment Partners co-founders Mark Friedman and Adam Stern. It will continue to focus primarily on relative value strategies within the volatility asset class.
The newly combined entity, whose flagship strategy will be a long volatility product, is anticipated to manage approximately USD600m.
“We have known the co-founders of AM and several of the portfolio managers for years. A combination with them brings forth many powerful synergies,” says Berman. “Among our peers in the volatility space, we admire AM and believe its similar investment philosophy and culture will be a good fit with Bam. There is tremendous potential in leveraging our 17 years of experience building and managing hedge funds as well as the decades of business and investment experience among the professionals of the combined firms.”
“We believe that the core of any volatility strategy is a strong grasp of both macro and micro fundamentals,” adds Friedman. “We have had a friendly dialogue with Ross and Hal over the years, and the similarity of our styles and the way we have built our respective companies makes me confident that this merger is the natural next step in further developing our core discipline, which is rooted in identifying idiosyncratic volatility.”
The completion of the combination is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and third party consents.