HF specialist Fairfield Greenwich has tied in with Banque Benedict Hentsch. New York-based alternatives manager Fairfield Greenwich Group has merged with Geneva-based private bank Banque Benedict Hentsch to form Banque Benedict Hentsch Fairfield (BBHF), a Geneva-based, Swiss- and U.K.-regulated firm. The merger partners say the union gives clients of Banque Benedict Hentsch access to Fairfield Greenwich's fund platform while clients of Fairfield Greenwich get access to Banque Benedict Hentsch's wealth-management services.

BBHF has $18 billion in assets under management with about $16 billion of that amount coming from Fairfield Greenwich.

Roughly equal

"We believe that our partnership with a firm of [Banque Benedict Hentsch's] outstanding quality brings us even more directly into the vanguard of global alternatives managers who are finding new and interlocking opportunities through expansion and business development across multiple financial industry sectors," says Walter Noel, a founding partner of Fairfield Greenfield.

Elizabeth Nesvold, managing partner of New York-based M&A consultancy Silver Lane Advisors thinks the merger of Fairfield Greenwich and BBH makes perfect sense.

"Fairfield [Greenwich] is essentially a fund-of-fund platform, but they understand wealth management and, because they run an off-shore platform, they're used to international clients," says Nesvold. "Generally, Swiss private banks have embraced alternatives and [Banque Benedict Hentsch] is one of the more aggressive groups in Switzerland."

And, despite the fact that Fairfield Greenwich brings more to the table in assets under management than Banque Benedict Hentsch, Nesvold sees the deal as a merger of equals due to "the value of [the Swiss boutique's] ancillary services."

Noel, Andrés Piedrahita and Jeffrey Tucker founded Fairfield Greenwich in 1983. It markets internally managed hedge funds and its pick of non-proprietary single-manager hedge funds, fund-of-funds and other alternative-investment vehicles, principally to non-U.S. private banks, institutions, financial intermediaries and high-net-worth individuals.

Benedict Hentsch co-founded the bank that bears his name in 2004, several years after leaving Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, a firm founded by his ancestor Henri Hentsch in 1796.

More to come?

Banque Benedict Hentsch provides wealth-management services to ultra-affluent private clients and best-of-breed investment advice to individuals, families and institutions. Created "with the sole aim of returning to the traditional values of private banking with one-to-one relationships with each of its clients," it's "overriding objective," it says, is to protect, optimize and grow its clients' personal wealth.

Fairfield Greenwich and Banque Benedict Hentsch are compatible in terms of basic philosophies, approaches to capital preservation and a shared commitment to client service, according to Hentsch.

"We are very confident that many powerful synergies exist for both Fairfield Greenwich and [Banque Benedict Hentsch] and that the clients and investors of both groups will greatly benefit," says Hentsch, who is chairman of BBHF's board of directors. "Our combined companies will be able to offer both institutional and private investors a wide spectrum of integrated, innovative, tailored products and services."

This drive to diversification under the "wealth management" rubric may lead other alternatives managers to look for boutique partners like Banque Benedict Hentsch -- with a weak U.S. dollar and general market conditions in the U.S. bringing stateside firms more prominently into play.

"It all amounts to a chance for firms to selectively look for partners," says Nesvold.

BBHF has more than 150 employees in Geneva and Lugano in Switzerland; Greenwich, Conn., New York and Miami in the U.S., as well as in Hamilton in Bermuda, Rio de Janeiro, London, Madrid, Singapore and Beijing.

Banque Benedict Hentsch and Fairfield Greenwich will each place two members on their respective boards. Hentsch and Robert Pennone, another co-founder of Banque Benedict Hentsch, will become directors of Fairfield Greenwich; Charles Murphy, head of Fairfield Greenwich's strategy and capital-markets business, and Mark McKeefry, Fairfield Greenwich's COO and general counsel, will join the board of BBHF. -FWR

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