Pacific Asset Management, a London-based asset manager with over $16.4 billion of assets, expands with Tourbillon Global Equity.

Pacific Asset Management has partnered with global equity specialist Tourbillon Partners, enhancing its global equity capabilities with an experienced team.

Co-founded by portfolio managers Ben Beneche and Ramesh Narayanaswamy (pictured left to right respectively), Tourbillon is a global, long-only equity manager with a value-driven approach. The team focuses on durable businesses and uses a unique approach to identify the most compelling opportunities worldwide, the firm said in a statement.

Before founding Tourbillon, Beneche was senior portfolio manager and co-lead of international equities at Pictet Asset Management, where for over 10 years he managed all-cap international equity portfolios, particularly focusing on Japanese and Asia-Pacific companies.

Narayanaswamy was a partner and portfolio manager at Veritas Asset, a global fundamental equity research and portfolio management. Prior to that he spent five years at Fidelity Investments as both analyst and sector portfolio manager.

The team will be appointed portfolio managers of Pacific’s global equity strategies. Concurrently, Pacific will also become investment manager to Tourbillon’s Cayman fund, giving a combined assets under management of about $230 million. All vehicles will be managed by them using the same proprietary process and philosophy they have implemented at Tourbillon, with Pacific providing the operational infrastructure, distribution and technology to allow the team to focus on generating returns for investors.

“Their philosophy embodies our approach of delivering high conviction, “craft” investment strategies to clients globally. Pacific was built to be a home for outstanding investment professionals, supported by institutional infrastructure and leading technology,” Matthew Lamb, CEO, Pacific Asset Management, said.

“This transformative partnership with Pacific accelerates our ambition to create an exceptional single strategy fund. It brings increased focus and resources for investment and aligns the durability of the firm with the durability of the investments we seek,” Narayanaswamy added. “We have been impressed with the quality of people in the team, and the ethos of supported independence, which is clearly visible in the track record of developing a range of 'craft-based, hard-to-industrialise' strategies like ours.”