FRM Capital Advisors' FCA Catalyst Fund is proof that in the current climate, seeding is a strategy that can pay long-term dividends - and with minimal interference in managers' corporate governance
By Claire Makin
On 1 January 2009, as investors continued to flee from hedge funds, Patric de Gentile-Williams sat down with colleagues to ask a serious question: Does hedge fund seeding make sense in the face of a contracting industry? To find out, they jumped on planes to poll investors, and soon had their answer. "It was clear to us by the end of the first quarter that there was not only a case for seeding, but that it was better than it has ever been," says de Gentile-Williams, who is chief operating officer of FRM Capital Advisors (FCA).
Patric de Gentile-Williams
This was welcome news to FCA, whose seeding vehicle, FCA Catalyst Fund, was launched at the end...