“Hedge funds are certainly looking to capitalize on the enthusiasm for private equity,” says an EY partner.
Two Sigma, one of the world’s largest quantitative hedge fund managers, has raised $1.2 billion for its new private equity unit, Sightway Capital.
Sightway reached the final close of its first fund, Sightway Capital I, the firm said Tuesday. Commitments came from a “diverse group of institutional investors,” including Massachusetts’ public pension fund, which approved investing as much as $500 million with Sightway last year.
“With the closing of our first fund and the support of our new partners, we believe Sightway Capital is well positioned to build on the current momentum of our portfolio companies,” division CIO Wray Thorn said in a statement. “We plan to invest this additional capital to further scale our established platform company investments and to drive long-term value for our investors.”
Two Sigma first began exploring opportunities in private capital back in 2008, according to the Sightway website. The quant firm launched Sightway in January of last year as a way of “building on these established investment capabilities and continuing its differentiated investment approach.”
Two Sigma’s push into private equity reflects a larger trend of hedge fund firms diversifying with the hot asset class and other non-traditional strategies, according to EY. The consulting firm’s 2019 global alternative fund survey, published last week, found that 26 percent of hedge funds offered a private equity product.
“There is high investor appetite for these products,” said Ryan Munson, a partner in EY’s asset and wealth management practice. “Hedge funds are certainly looking to capitalize on the enthusiasm for private equity.”
While hedge funds in general have experienced a decline in popularity in recent years, private equity funds have been magnets for institutional capital. According to EY, private equity accounts for about a quarter of allocators’ alternatives portfolios, up from 18 percent in 2018. Hedge funds, by comparison, declined from 40 percent to 33 percent over the same period.
“In today’s environment, there’s a view that if you’re able to have a diversified portfolio of products to go to market with, that will help you attract a diversified base of investors and help with the overall performance of your firm,” Munson said. “I certainly think we’re going to continue to see this trend of managers not looking to be one-trick ponies but having variety of products.”
Source: Institutional Investor
Read other recent News
GTCR to Acquire Cloudbreak Health for $180m
GTCR, a leading private equity firm, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cloudbreak Health, LLC ("Cloudbreak" or "the Company"), a leading provider of tech-enabled, healthcare-focused language interpretation services, in a corporate...
Arctos Partners Drives into F1 with Aston Martin Stake, Valued at $1bn
Aston Martin F1 team sells stake to private equity firm at $1bn valuation. While exact figures have not been disclosed, Aston Martin has reported on the eve of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix that Arctos Partners has acquired a “minority shareholding in AMR...
Brookfield Asset Management’s affiliate Closes $1.1bn Argo Acquisition
Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (“Argo”) today announced the completion of Brookfield Reinsurance’s acquisition of Argo in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.1bn. Under the terms of the transaction, Brookfield Reinsurance acquired all issued...