NEW YORK, Dec 9, Blackstone Group has hired two executives who previously worked with billionaire investors Bruce Kovner and David Tepper to top investment positions in the firm's $81 billion hedge fund unit, the company said on Thursday.
David Ben-Ur, who was the head of Kovner's family money, will join as chief investment officer of the unit's hedge fund solutions business. Atish Nigam, who worked for Tepper's hedge fund Appaloosa Management, will become chief investment officer of the hedge fund unit's special situations investing business.
Both men will join the New York-based Blackstone in early 2022 and work for Joe Dowling, who heads Blackstone's hedge fund business known as BAAM.
Dowling told Reuters that the mission is to deliver exceptional performance and these are highly skilled investors who will help us achieve that.
Dowling, a former endowment chief at Brown University, came to Blackstone this year and recruited staff as a number of senior Blackstone executives left the firm.
The new hires show the tremendous momentum we have in BAAM, said Jon Gray, Blackstone president and chief operating officer. David and Atish are outstanding investors with a great track record of managing money and delivering strong, risk-adjusted returns through market cycles. Ben-Ur was chief investment officer at CAM Capital, where he managed assets for Kovner who founded hedge fund Caxton Associates in 1983. Before that he was a co-chief investment officer at Corbin Capital, he started his career at Fidelity Investments.
CAM Capital and Blackstone agreed on preliminary terms to manage CAM Capital's assets.
Nigam was a senior analyst at Tepper's Appaloosa, a hedge fund that is now managing mainly Tepper's personal fortune.
Blackstone's BAAM unit is on track to post its best-ever year, with revenues and earnings topping last year's records and assets at a record high. Blackstone's fund-of- funds portfolio, BAAM Principal Solutions, gained 12.2% over the last 12 months, beating the hedge fund industry's 8.9%.
The unit has seen a lot of turnover. Ben-Ur will replace Gideon Berger, who left the firm earlier this year, while Nigam will replace Min Htoo who is leaving at the end of the year.