Former BT/Sagitta execs launch wholesale boutique group

Fourrecently departedBT/Sagittainvestment executives have launched a new wholesale boutique funds management group — Renaissance Asset Management — to specialise in small caps and listed property securities.

Renaissance will be the holding company for two separate businesses — Renaissance Smaller Companies and Renaissance Property Securities — to be managed by the former heads of Sagitta’s small caps and property securities teams, David Fleming and Carlos Cocaro respectively.

Fleming resigned from his previous role in late January and was closely followed by Cocaro who resigned the following month.

The two remaining members of the new venture are Glen Hoffman, who will assist Fleming in managing small caps, and Damien Barrack, who will work alongside Cocaro in the property securities business.

The group, which was granted a wholesale licence in May and only has seeded capital from its four directors, will look to manage discrete mandates on behalf of super funds and has had positive reactions so far from asset consultants.

“We have been approaching the asset consulting community and the preliminary reaction is quite encouraging. There is a fair bit of interest in Renaissance and also the investment areas that we will be focusing on,” Cocaro says.

Both entities will place a roof on their funds under management. Cocaro says his will be three per cent of the listed property securities market or $1.2 billion, while he says the small caps team will close at around $600 million or 0.75 per cent of the total domestic investment universe.

“We will be focusing totally on our areas of strength, smaller companies and property securities, where we have extensive experience and strong track records,” Cocaro says.

“At the moment we’re getting back into the process of researching stocks. I won’t reveal which stocks we’re looking at but all I can say is that we are back doing what we do best — picking stocks.”