Quaestus targets emerging hedge fund manager seeding deals

Emerging hedge fund managers have a new source of seed and
acceleration capital following the launch of Quaestus Capital, a
private equity company focused on the emerging asset management
sector.

Les Hollis, founder and managing partner of Quaestus, said the company
was ready to back emerging asset managers that have the potential to
attract large mandates from pension plans and other institutional
investors.

"We are looking at individuals and teams of portfolio managers that
are ready to launch asset management businesses. These are people that
have a proven track record of managing institutional assets and are
ready to spin off or lift out of existing organisations," said Hollis.
"We are also interested in established managers that require capital
to make organisational changes, address operational challenges or
enter new markets," he said.

The investment universe is not restricted to hedge funds and may also
involve private equity or long-only managers, said Hollis.
He said Quaestus would play an active management role in its portfolio
companies, with an emphasis on improving their fundraising
capabilities and operations infrastructure.

"A lot of asset managers fail to grow to their potential, not due to
poor investment performance, but because their operations, compliance
and marketing efforts fail to meet institutional standards. We will
focus our attention on addressing those issues," said Hollis.
He declined to discuss the number or size of deals Quaestus is
targeting.

Until recently Hollis was CEO of Bivium Partners which he founded in
2002. Bivium managed around $1.3 billion for public and private
pension plan sponsors, mainly through 'manager of emerging managers'
portfolios.

Prior to establishing Bivium, he was involved in the launch of Epoch
Partners, a San Francisco investment bank which was acquired in 2001
by Goldman Sachs.

Victor MacFarlane, founder of the $5 billion real estate investment
firm MacFarlane Partners, is a lead investor in Quaestus and will also
be a member of its board of directors.

Quaestus will begin raising assets for a fund later this year.
However, it already has sufficient capital to execute its first
transactions, Hollis said.
Source: HedgeFundsReview.Com