Spanish Value manager azValor has opened a representative office in London to boost its research capability, increase capacity and to provide greater access to target corporates.
The non-regulated office, in London’s West End, will be headed by Michael Alsalem, who joins with immediate effect from Ledbury Partners, where he launched a European fund focusing on deep value and other special situation investments.
Previously Alsalem worked as co-portfolio manager and senior analyst at firms including Highbridge Capital and Kingdon Capital Management in New York and London. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 with a BSc In Mechanical Engineering.
The azValor London office will be run by the parent company of the asset manager and it will represent the only Spanish independent asset manager based in London following the withdrawal of other firms in recent years.
Alsalem says: “London will always be an important financial centre and I am delighted to be joining the azValor team, whom I have known for many years for its rigorous and differentiated investment approach.
“With the implementation of MIFiD II, it is important to have direct contact with investment targets and build that into the value we offer our co-investors, and I look forward to developing that access and capability.”
azValor Asset Management was founded as an SGIIC (Sociedad Gestora de Instituciones de Inversión Colectiva) in 2015 by a group of experienced Spanish investment professionals, to focus on long term Value investment in listed equities. It now employs 37 professionals and has more than 16,000 clients and some EUR1.7 billion in assets under management in four investment funds, two pension plans and two Luxembourg SICAVs.
Before founding azValor Asset Management, CEO and CIO Álvaro Guzmán de Lázaro spent 12 years at Spain’s Bestinver Asset Management, where he was a portfolio manager together with azValor co-founder Fernando Bernad.
Guzmán says: “We are very happy to introduce Michael to our clients as we think about investment in very similar ways. His assistance in broadening and deepening our research capability from London will be most helpful as we continue to seek undervalued companies across our markets.”
