Carrhae buys out Blackstone stake

Asset manager seeded firm with $150m in 2011

Emerging markets-focused hedge fund has bought out Blackstone’s stake in the business.

The asset manager initially seeded Carrhae with $150m at launch roughly 10 years ago.

As part of the deal, Canepa Global Managers, an asset manager-focused investment firm, will become a minority shareholder in Carrhae’s asset management company and will invest in Carrhae’s hedge fund.

London-based Carrhae currently manages a flagship fund, which trades a long/short equity strategy with a focus on emerging markets.

In 2017, the firm launched a Ucits version of its flagship strategy on Morgan Stanley’s FundLogic Alternatives platform.

It now runs around $800m in assets as of 1 May, the firm said.

The fund is currently up 0.8% YTD through March, HFM data shows, after gaining a record 16.6% in 2020 and posting its fourth consecutive year of positive returns.

Equity-focused hedge funds are currently up by around 6% YTD through April, according to the data.

It was founded in 2011 by former SAC Europe portfolio manager Ali Akay. Prior to SAC, Akay also worked at HBK Capital, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, according to Linkedin.

He said: “Blackstone Group has been an incredibly valuable partner through our 10-year relationship.

“We are excited to enter the next decade with CGM and remain committed to being a boutique focused purely on alpha generation.”

Carrhae is made up of a team of 14, with research teams based in China and India, including CEO Aziz Faqir, who joined the firm in 2019.

Prior to Carrhae, Faqir worked as a managing partner at Lakson Investments where he launched a healthcare-focused private equity fund. Prior to that, Faqir also worked at Goldman Sachs in capital introduction, Valiance Advisors and Merrill Lynch, Linkedin shows.

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