Sandalwood Securities, the Roseland, N.J.-based $1 billion credit fund of funds, recently hired Mihir Meswani, formerly the director of public market managers at the $8 billion Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as part of a push to attract institutional clients.
The firm is also considering whether to build on Meswani’s equities expertise to create a fund that would primarily invest in long/short equity managers, though these discussions are preliminary. Sandalwood already has a small exposure to equities hedge funds, but has never launched a large equity vehicle and remains primarily focused on credit. Sandalwood declined to comment.
Meswani has taken the role of chief portfolio strategist at Sandalwood and will co-manage the firm’s funds of funds with Joan Larson, head of manager research, in overseeing risk management and assisting with manager selection. Meswani and Larson report to founder Martin Gross. At Robert Wood Johnson, Meswani oversaw the foundation’s hedge fund, traditional equity and fixed income portfolios. Previously, he worked at Banc of America as head of one of its proprietary trading groups and, before that, at JPMorgan heading up one of its long/short equity strategies.
Sandalwood’s largest funds, Sandalwood Debt Fund and Bodleian Partners, which invest in multistrategy, credit and event-driven strategies, returned 18.79% and 29.45% through November.
Most of the firm’s underlying managers are credit hedge funds that invest in high-yield bonds, bank debt, and distressed securities. The firm also allocates to hedge funds that invest in merger and capital structure arbitrage.
Sandalwood, which Gross founded in 1990, has mostly high-net-worth clients, but this year, the firm will make a push toward bringing in institutional assets.
--Suzy Kenly