Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP) has obtained $500 million in commitments for AIP Strategic Opportunities Fund I (SOF I), a closed-end investment fund that seeks to capitalize on medium-term opportunities in the hedge fund space. SOF I will focus primarily on hedge fund secondaries, hedge fund co-investments and other opportunistic hedge fund strategies. Mark van der Zwan and Jarrod Quigley, Managing Directors, are SOF I’s primary portfolio managers.
“We are pleased that we have achieved our fundraising goal for SOF I,” said Mustafa Jama, Chief Investment Officer of the Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners Hedge Fund group. “We believe that the fund is well positioned to capture value by investing in opportunities with a two- to five-year duration. The withdrawal of traditional capital providers, such as banks and proprietary trading desks, from this segment of the market should, in our view, enable highly selective investors with patient capital to generate attractive returns.”
“Our AIP Hedge Fund group is world-class, and this successful fundraising effort marks the latest in a long string of achievements,” said Arthur Lev, Head of AIP. “The team is among the most experienced buyers of hedge fund secondaries and has access to a strong set of top-tier hedge fund managers pursuing niche opportunities in this area of the market.”
The AIP Hedge Fund group has over $20 billion in assets under management and advisement as of March 31, 2014.1 The group’s headquarters are located in West Conshohocken, Pa., with additional offices in New York and London.
Established in 2000, AIP has approximately $35.8 billion in assets under management and advisement.2
1As of March 31, 2014, Morgan Stanley AIP’s total fund-of-hedge fund assets of approximately $20.2 billion comprises approximately $12.5 billion of assets under management and approximately $7.7 billion of assets under advisement.
2As of March 31, 2014, Morgan Stanley AIP’s total assets of approximately $35.8 billion comprises approximately $28.0 billion of assets under management (AUM) and approximately $7.8 billion of assets under advisement. Approximately $1.5 billion of assets cross-invested across AIP product lines have been subtracted from the total so as to avoid double-counting. AUM is based on (i) total net asset value of its fund-of-hedge-funds managed investment vehicles and separate accounts; (ii) value of all partners’ capital accounts and investors’ invested capital, plus their respective unfunded commitments, of private equity funds of funds and private equity separate accounts; and (iii) value of all partners’ capital accounts and investors’ invested capital, plus their respective unfunded commitments, of real estate funds of funds and real estate separate accounts. The value of private equity and real estate assets under management in separate accounts not solely dedicated to private equity or real estate investments managed by the relevant team is defined as the carrying value of all private equity or real estate assets, plus unfunded private equity or real estate commitments.