13 Sep 2012

Investcorp, the international alternative asset manager, announced today that David Cranston has rejoined the firm to support the business development efforts related to the Single Manager Platform, the firm’s hedge fund seeding business.

Mr. Cranston serves as a managing director in Investcorp’s hedge funds group. He previously held a similar role with the firm from 2005 through 2010. Before rejoining Investcorp, Mr. Cranston was a partner at North Creek Advisors, an independent hedge fund seeder. Prior to initially joining Investcorp, he raised capital for hedge fund products at Capital Z Investments’ Channel Capital Group. Mr. Cranston also spent 10 years managing derivatives sales desks and marketing derivatives to the largest macro hedge funds and proprietary bank trading groups while at a number of bulge-bracket investment banks in the United States and London.

Mr. Cranston’s appointment reflects Investcorp’s commitment to further grow its Single Manager Platform.

Deepak Gurnani, Investcorp’s chief investment officer and head of hedge funds, said: “I couldn’t be more pleased to have a person of David’s caliber rejoin the Investcorp team. His previous experience with the Single Manager Platform will be a great asset as he helps us to further grow our business. We have spent considerable time studying the impact of adding emerging managers to hedge fund portfolios and see advantages to seeding those that can outperform large hedge funds, particularly during uncertain times in the market. With David’s help, we look forward to partnering with more emerging managers in the months to come.”

Mr. Cranston’s primary responsibility will be to grow the approximately $1.6 billion Single Manager Platform, which today includes six managers. Client assets under management in Investcorp’s Single Manager Platform grew 55 percent over Investcorp’s last fiscal year, reflecting an increasing trend towards this product. Investcorp’s hedge fund group, with approximately $4.3 billion under management, raises capital mostly from U.S. institutional investors.

Mr. Cranston said: “I’m happy to be back at Investcorp and look forward to contributing to the success of the Single Manager Platform. Given the challenges inherent in a low rate and uncertain market environment, it is more critical than ever that we seek out those managers who best deliver alpha to hedge fund portfolios. Investcorp has wisely contributed resources to this program in an effort to find those alpha generators.”

David holds a BA in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is FINRA Series 7 and 63 licensed.