Julius Baer Holding sold 90% of its fixed-income and currency management unit, Julius Baer Investments, to its management. Terms aren't being disclosed, said Martin Somogyi, spokesman for Julius Baer Holding. The parent company will retain a 10% stake in the unit, which has been renamed Augustus Asset Managers.
Augustus, which manages $9 billion in long-only, hedge fund and absolute return strategies, "will continue to act as a subadviser to the Julius Baer Cayman-based hedge funds which are listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and to those Julius Baer Luxembourg SICAV mutual funds that we currently subadvise," Augustus President Edward Dove said in a news release. Mr. Dove was CEO at Julius Baer Investments.
Tim Haywood will be CEO and CIO of Augustus, while Howard Carter — an industry veteran who was most recently CEO of F&C Asset Management — was appointed non-executive chairman, according to the Augustus news release.
The MBO came about because there wasn't a good fit between the single hedge fund strategies run by Julius Baer Investments and GAM, the hedge fund-of-funds business Julius Baer purchased from UBS in December 2005, according to a Julius Baer news release.
Investment advisory firm Hawkpoint advised Augustus on the transaction.
