Quaero Capital, the larger of the two firms, is headquartered in Geneva. It manages around $1.4bn in funds domiciled in Luxembourg, Switzerland and France. It specialises in European equities, infrastructure and real assets, offering high-conviction strategies.
The firm has one fund authorised for sale to investors in Singapore, the Quaero Capital Accessible Clean Energy Fund, a Luxembourg Sicav fund launched in 2014. Other strategies are available to professional investors in Asia through a local partner, Peak Capital.
Asian investors account for around 20% of Quaero’s business, according to Simon Powell, managing director at Peak Capital.
Marc Saint John Webb, a partner at the firm, in an earlier interview described its approach to managing European equity funds as “halfway between private equity and [publicly-listed] equity in terms of the investment approach”.
The merger with Tiburon Partners, an Asia equity specialist firm, will expand Quaero’s scope to Asian equities. Today Tiburon manages three funds: the Tiburon Taiko – a Japan equity fund, the Tiburon Taipan – an Asia-Pacific ex-Japan equity fund, and the Atlantis Japan Growth Fund. It has around $900m of assets under management, according to the announcement.
Both firms are fully employee-owned. After the merger, which is still subject to regulatory approval, they will continue under the Quaero Capital brand. The merger is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2018, according to Powell.
Spokesmen for Quaero and Tiburon stressed similarities in the style and philosophy of the two firms, as well as their complementary nature.
In a statement, Tiburon Partners’ senior partner Rupert Kimber said Quaero Capital’s managers “have a similar investment approach based on value orientated, concentrated portfolios”. The partnership would let Tiburon “take our offering more widely,” he added.
