US boutique platform buys 20% of equities specialist Zadig

Asset manager is its first European strategic investment partnership

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Kirsten Hastings

Luxembourg and London-based Zadig Asset Management has become the sixth firm to join multi-boutique platform IM Global Partner.

The Philadelphia-headquartered firm is an investment and development platform that is focused on acquiring minority strategic stakes in traditional and alternative investment firms in the US, Europe and Asia.

Laurent Saglio, founder and partner at Zadig AM, said that the partnership brings with it distribution, business support and a “sophisticated appreciation of the investment management industry”.

Retain independence

The deal will see IM Global acquire a 20% interest in Zadig, which is an independent European equities specialist with $1.8bn (€1.6bn) of assets under management.

As with the other strategic partners, Zadig will continue to run its operations independently and manage its portfolios using its existing active and concentrated stock picking approach.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory requirements, including the approval of the Luxembourg regulator, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.

It is the first partnership based in Europe.

Trio on offer

Zadig currently offers three strategies available in Ucits and separately managed accounts:

  • Memnon European Equity: a European equities strategy launched in 2011, which has outperformed the MSCI Europe by around 5% annually (gross of fees) since its inception (€692m AUM in the Ucits fund).
  • Memnon Market Neutral: a European market neutral equity strategy targeting average annual performance of 4-5% (gross of fees) with no market correlation over the long term (€309mn AUM in the Ucits fund).
  • Memnon ARP: a global macro strategy aiming at generating a high single digit return over the medium term with little or no correlation to equities and government bonds doing so by combining directional and style premia strategies to get exposure to performance streams from equity indices, government bonds, commodities and credit.

Partnerships

The six partner firms are:

Zadig Asset Management: European equity manager

Polen Capital: US and global growth equity manager

Dolan McEniry Capital Management: US credit fundamental value manager

Sirios Capital Management: US long short equity manager

Scharf Investments: US value equity manager

Dynamic Beta investments: Liquid alternatives manager

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