NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Eagle Investments (“First Eagle”) today announced it has expanded its portfolio offerings to non-US investors through the launch of its US Small Cap strategy within First Eagle’s Irish UCITS platform. The sub-fund, which was seeded by First Eagle in February 2022, pursues an opportunistic small cap value strategy. It invests in companies that the portfolio management team believes are attractively valued and have the potential to benefit from a catalyst—such as new management, a more favorable business cycle, product innovation and/or margin improvement—that may drive a recovery in earnings growth.
The strategy is managed by First Eagle’s Small Cap team, which was formed in April 2021 with the hiring of Portfolio Manager Bill Hench, Associate Portfolio Managers Suzanne Franks and Rob Kosowsky, and Senior Research Analyst Adam Mielnik. All four were previously employed by Royce Investment Partners, where they managed the portfolios of a US mutual fund, a UCITS fund and a collective investment trust, with Hench listed as one of the portfolio managers since 2004. Subsequently, the Small Cap team added Trader/Analyst Mark Salamone and Analyst Connor Sheehy in October 2021 and July 2022, respectively.
“We believe skilled active managers can exploit the ample inefficiencies in the US small cap market to deliver differentiated investment solutions,” said Matthieu Louanges, Global Head of Institutional and International Wealth Management at First Eagle. “Bill and his team have been focused on the US small cap market for many years, and our London and Munich-based account management teams are pleased to offer existing and prospective clients access to this time-tested, value-oriented strategy through a UCITS structure.”
First Eagle’s US Small Cap strategy takes an opportunistic but disciplined approach to bottom-up portfolio construction, employing in-house fundamental research in an effort to identify companies that appear temporarily mispriced by the market due to inefficiently valued assets, turnaround potential, accelerating-but-overlooked earnings growth, or unacknowledged market leadership. True small cap specialists, the team typically holds 180 to 300 stocks—including microcap stocks with market capitalizations below $1 billion—in pursuit of broad diversification at the security level.
“Small cap stocks represent a particularly volatile and inefficiently priced segment of the US equity market,” said Hench. “However, these dynamics historically also have created opportunities for disciplined active managers to generate attractive long-term returns for investors through diversified portfolios of undervalued small cap names. We are excited to offer our expertise in this space to investors outside the US.”
The US Small Cap strategy is offered through a sub-fund of First Eagle’s Irish UCITS vehicle, with three types of share classes (retail, advisory and institutional) denominated in three currencies (US dollars, euros and British pounds). The UCITS fund currently is available for public offer and sale in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, and is available for eligible investors in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. First Eagle plans to register the UCITS fund for distribution in additional countries in the near future. This latest sub-fund joins First Eagle’s growing UCITS platform, which was established in May 2021 with the launch of a sub-fund offering its International Value (global excluding the US) strategy.
About First Eagle Investments
First Eagle Investments is an independent, privately owned investment management firm headquartered in New York with approximately $101.6 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2022. (On a pro forma basis to include the recent acquisition of Napier Park Global Capital, First Eagle’s total assets under management are approximately $121.1 billion as of that same date.) Dedicated to providing prudent stewardship of client assets, the firm focuses on active, fundamental and benchmark-agnostic investing, with a strong emphasis on downside mitigation. With a heritage dating back to 1864, First Eagle has helped its clients avoid permanent impairment of capital and earn attractive returns through widely varied economic cycles—a tradition that is central to its mission today. The firm’s investment capabilities include equity, fixed income, alternative credit and multi-asset strategies. For more information on First Eagle, please visit www.firsteagle.com.
The total pro forma assets under management (AUM) represents the combined AUM of First Eagle Investments and Napier Park Global Capital as of June 30, 2022. It includes $1.5 billion of committed and other non-fee-paying capital from First Eagle Alternative Credit and $0.9 billion of committed and other non-fee-paying capital from Napier Park, inclusive of assets managed by Regatta Loan Management LLC. Pro forma results are for illustrative purposes only and are not actual performance results. The pro forma results reflect a business combination that had not yet taken place and may differ materially from actual performance results.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR INVESTORS
This is a marketing communication. The material is for informational purposes only and should not be regarded as a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell any product or service to which this information may relate. Certain products and services may not be available to all entities or persons. This release does not constitute or contain an offer, solicitation, recommendation or investment advice with respect to the purchase of any sub-fund described herein or any security.
The investment vehicle referenced in this material has been established as an Irish collective asset-management vehicle with variable capital constituted as an umbrella fund with segregated liability between its sub-funds under the laws of Ireland (registered number 445369) (the “ICAV”). Prospective investors should carefully consider a sub-fund’s objectives, risks, charges, tax considerations and expenses and other relevant information before investing. For this and more information on the ICAV, please refer to the ICAV’s prospectus, the supplement for the sub-funds and the applicable KIIDs and read them carefully before you invest and before making any final investment decisions. This is not a contractually binding document; do not base any final investment decision on this communication alone.
An investment in a sub-fund involves risk; principal loss is possible. There is no guarantee a sub-fund’s investment objectives will be achieved. In respect of the US Small Cap strategy, investments in small and micro-size companies historically have been more volatile in price than larger company securities, especially over the short term. Positions in small and micro-size companies also may be more difficult or expensive to trade. Among the reasons for the greater price volatility are the less certain growth prospects of small and micro-size companies, the lower degree of liquidity in the markets for such securities, and the greater sensitivity of small and micro-size companies to changing economic conditions. Value investments present the risk of never reaching what may be believed to be their full market values or may decline in value.
More information on these risk considerations, as well as information on other risks to which the sub-fund is subject, such as liquidity, market, and investment strategy risks, are included in the ICAV’s prospectus.
The ICAV’s prospectus is available on the First Eagle website and www.fundinfo.com. The KIIDs can also be accessed on the First Eagle website and are available in one of the official languages of each of the EU Member States into which the sub-funds have been notified for marketing under the UCITS Directive 2009/65/EC.
Prospective investors should also consult their professional advisers as to the suitability of any investment in light of their particular circumstances and applicable citizenship, residence or domicile. The ICAV has been authorized in Ireland as a UCITS pursuant to the European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) Regulation 2011, as amended.
Shares of the ICAV are only available for certain non-US persons in select transactions outside the United States, or, in limited circumstances, otherwise in transactions that are exempt from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such other US laws as may be applicable.
The ICAV currently is available for public offer and sale in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, and is available for eligible investors in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in each case in accordance with applicable law.
The views expressed herein represent the opinions of First Eagle and are not intended as a forecast or guarantee of future results for any product or service.