UK-based Ignis Asset Management has entered a strategic partnership with Castle Hill Asset Management, a specialist credit investment manager based in the US and UK, and acquired a 49 per cent stake in the firm.

Under the agreement Castle Hill will manage sub-advisory mandates from Ignis and two Ignis executives will sit on its board.

“We are delighted to be a significant shareholder in Castle Hill, which is an important strategic investment for us in this highly specialist area…we are sure they will be successful in managing the assets we have out-sourced to them as well as gathering significant third party assets with us,” said Jonathan Polin, sales and marketing director, Ignis Asset Management.

Castle Hill simultaneously announced the launch of the Castle Hill Total Return Fund, a hedge fund focused on opportunistic credit strategies and capital structure arbitrage, which has been seeded with approximately $50 million of capital by Castle Hill employees and associates, the firm said in a press statement.