RWC Partners has completed the acquisition of Pensato Capital. Established by Graham Clapp in 2008, Pensato Capital managed approximately $280m on behalf of its clients across long-only and long/short European equity strategies as at the end of August 2017.
 
A seven-strong investment team joins RWC from Pensato, including co-portfolio managers Edward Rumble and Russell Champion who both worked alongside Clapp at Fidelity. Clapp spent 22 years at Fidelity from 1984 until 2006, where he was manager of the €25 billion European Growth Fund.
 
At RWC the team will continue to manage three funds: the Europa Fund, a long/short Cayman-domiciled fundamentally driven European equity fund; the Europa Absolute Return Fund, a long/short UCITS vehicle managed on a pari passu basis to the Europa Fund; and the European Equity fund, a long-only Cayman-domiciled fund.
 
In managing the funds the team utilises Clapp’s proprietary bottom-up research process, which he has honed over the last 30 years, to identify the key profit and value drivers of a company. The investment approach aims to build diversified portfolios of investments across different and uncorrelated industries, with a focus on the mid cap space where thorough analysis of the economic fundamentals of businesses can add significant value.
 
Completion of the acquisition takes RWC’s total assets under management to approximately $12 billion.
 
RWC Partners’ CEO Dan Mannix commented: “Graham and his team offer a world class European equity capability in long-only and long-short strategies.  It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to work with such a respected team and we are excited that Graham chose RWC as the home for the next stage of development for his team.  We see real opportunity for active managers in European equities and we believe Graham’s energy, experience and talent make him one of the outstanding people in the asset class.  
 
Graham Clapp said: “RWC is set up to provide its investment teams with the support and resources they require in order to concentrate on the delivery of outperformance for investors, and it was clear from our early conversations with Dan that its model was suited to us and the way we want to operate and manage money in the years to come.”
 
“Our move to RWC will enable us to focus solely on what we do best – analysing companies – in what is and will remain a very exciting asset class for an active fund manager.”