Bloomberg — Sao-Paulo-based Galapagos Capital is planning to expand its asset management business to the US next year, according to chief investment officer Sergio Zanini.
The company, which has about $2.8 billion under management, will hire four portfolio managers and two research strategists to be based in Miami for a new macro fund focused on emerging markets and registered in the US, said Zanini, who oversees Galapagos’ liquid strategies for the asset management arm.
It will target international investors, he said, and it’s expected to launch in the first quarter of next year. The firm is looking to launch the fund with about $300 million and sees room for it to reach about $1 billion in the short term.
“Our DNA is emerging markets,” Zanini said. “EM is a huge asset class that has been kind of overlooked for the past 10 years with a lot of macro opportunities and a lot of expertise in navigating inflationary cycles. It’s also very correlated to commodities which in our view will be central to macro allocations in the next 10 years.”
Earlier this year, the firm hired Jaime Valdivia from BlueCrest Capital Management to be based in Miami as chief economist.
The firm’s flagship Galapagos Evolution fund is up about 14% so far this year, beating the CDI benchmark rate that has gained 11%. Wagers on Brazilian stocks against their US counterparts contributed to the outperformance, Zanini said.
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