The deal, announced back in July, will see the group absorb an additional $280m (£216m) worth of assets from Pensato’s long-only and long/short European equity strategies, taking RWC’s total assets under management to $12bn (£9.26bn).
Before founding Pensato back in 2008, Clapp (pictured) worked at Fidelity for 22 years, where he was manager of the €25bn European Growth Fund.
Two of the other incoming Pensato team members, Edward Rumble and Russell Champion, are also Fidelity alumnus, having worked alongside Clapp during his career there.
Taking his investment team over to RWC was a clear fit, according to Clapp.
“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 [Mannix, RWC chief executive] that its model was suited to us and the way we want to operate and manage money in the years to come,” he said.
“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.”
The Pensato team will continue to look after the Cayman-domiciled long/short Europa fund and long-only European Equity fund, as well as the UCITS version of the Europa Absolute Return Fund under the RWC banner.
The strategy of the Pensato funds will remain the same, continuing to employ Clapp’s “proprietary bottom-up research process” to seek out the key profit and value drivers of companies, particularly within the midcap space.
Mannix added: “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.”
