West L.A. money management firm Aristotle Capital Management wanted to add a team to lead its expansion into small- and midcap stocks, and it went about as far as possible in the continental United States to find one.
On Jan. 8, Aristotle announced that it had acquired the small-cap and small/midcap strategies group of Eagle Boston Investment Management. As part of the deal, Jack McPherson and Dave Adams, who spearheaded the strategies at Eagle Boston, became portfolio managers of the new Aristotle Capital Boston on Dec. 31. They will continue to be based in Boston, making it Aristotle’s first foray outside of Southern California.
Aristotle first reached out to the team in the middle of last year, and it didn’t take long for the New Englanders to warm up to being part of the family.
“We quickly learned we had a lot in common,” Adams said. “The other Aristotle strategies – looking three to five years out – that’s what we’re looking at. And they’ve been very successful in the past supporting investment teams.”
McPherson said a visit out west convinced him and his partner that Aristotle was both a strategic and personal fit for his team.
“Toward the end of the summer we went to L.A. and had dinner one night,” he said. “That’s when you get to know the people, and understand it’s more than just a process and more than just a discipline. It’s also being on the same page and having the same outlook on life.”
Part of that outlook is a buy-and-hold philosophy. McPherson and Adams have been managing portfolios together for 12 years, and they said there are several equities they’ve owned the entire time. That appealed to Aristotle Managing Director Ranjit Sufi.
“This group builds portfolios that have low turnover and high conviction,” Sufi said. “That’s very consistent with the other Aristotle products.”
Some of Aristotle’s other investment offerings include corporate credit, global equities and high-yield bonds. The firm has $12 billion under management.
Farther East
The Korea-Israel Life Science Fund, a West L.A. investment fund that aims to connect Israeli health care startups with South Korean manufacturers, just added a new team member from across the Pacific.
Fund partners Marc Feldman and Jerry Katz recently tapped Yonsei University professor and management consultant Eunse Lee as their new man in Korea. The fund and its former Korea-based partner, David J.W. Suh, split amicably late last year.
Feldman didn’t rely on a headhunter or his personal network to find Lee. He stumbled upon the consultant when he was doing some research into the Korean venture capital market.
“I wrote some articles on Korean venture capital,” Lee said. “Marc actually found me through them and told me his story. I came to L.A. to meet him and Jerry and I realized we were talking about an even greater opportunity.”
Lee believes partnering with existing companies and leveraging their distribution capabilities is the most efficient way for health care startups to get their products to the widest audience.
“Established companies possess far better practical knowledge, information and networks in global markets,” he said.
While the fund’s immediate focus is finding Israeli businesses it can commercialize through Korean manufacturers, the team would like to eventually use the platform to boost life-science startups from other countries – including Korea itself. Lee said that despite the global footprint of Korean consumer brands such as LG Corp. and Samsung Group, too many Korean startups aren’t taking their ideas beyond the country’s borders.
“Right now, the global market is dispersed,” he said. “Korean startup companies are still in their hermit kingdom.”
C-Suite News
Shahe Mazbanian has joined MUFG Union Bank as a business development officer on the bank’s Small Business Administration lending team. He was formerly at City National Bank in downtown Los Angeles and will be based at Union Bank’s Glendale and downtown L.A. offices. … Taycor Financial, a Ladera Heights equipment financing firm, has named Michael Hong president. Hong replaces founder Bob Skibinski, who will remain chairman. … Five local Merrill Lynch Wealth Management advisers have made Rep. Magazine’s list of the top 100 advisers working for the four “wirehouse” firms: Bank of America Corp. (which owns Merrill), Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo & Co. They are Richard Jones, Raza Zafari, Philippe Hartl and Eric Gray in Century City, and Kevin Scott in downtown Los Angeles. The five combined have more than $18.4 billion under management.
Staff reporter Matt Pressberg can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 230.
