Perella Weinberg Energy Funds Led by Kuschnir Move to Jefferies

(Bloomberg) -- Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is acquiring a whole energy team and its portfolio from Perella Weinberg Partners LP, which is paring its asset management operations.

The team of six led by Diego Kuschnir, who was a partner and portfolio manager at Perella Weinberg's Tudor Pickering energy practice in Manhattan, runs alternative energy, midstream and energy infrastructure funds, the person said. These funds, with assets under management totaling several hundred million dollars, will continue to operate with no breaks under the newly formed Solanas Capital unit of Jefferies. The transaction will be effective by July 1, the person said.

Jefferies and Perella Weinberg didn't respond to requests seeking comment.

The move comes as Perella Weinberg streamlines its asset management unit after separating the advisory business earlier this year with plans to take the investment bank public later in 2019. The asset manager gave employees the option to spin off to create their own businesses, and anyone with good options is looking at taking a similar route, the person said. Other moves appear to be weeks or months away, according to the person.

Solanas expects to receive significant additional seed capital as part of the move and a key area of focus will be to grow the ESG Alternative Energy Fund, as it's a strategy that has large investors waiting in the wings, the person said. This product and the the energy infrastructure fund are long-short strategies while midstream is predominantly a long-only product.

Senior management at Perella Weinberg Partners and its Tudor Pickering Holt unit were very involved with the transaction, the person said. The energy practice received interest from investment banks, as well as wealth and asset managers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Naureen S. Malik in New York at nmalik28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada, Linus Chua

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