Investcorp, the alternative asset manager, and Ballast Capital Management, a hedge fund manager based in New York, have formed a partnership.

Ballast, which specialises in long-short equity, is the latest addition to Investcorp's single manager platform.

Ballast is led by Robert M. Kaynor, chief investment officer, and Ryan M. O'Sullivan, president. Kaynor and O'Sullivan are joined initially by two other partners in the investment team. At launch, Ballast will be composed of an eight person team. 

Kaynor and two of the investment team members, Mason Stark and Joanna Wald, previously worked together at Ramius, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund.

Ballast joins Investcorp's platform of hedge fund managers. Within this platform, Investcorp provides its client base with access to investment managers, supported by ongoing monitoring and operational oversight and control. Managers benefit from the backing of a financial services organisation, including Investcorp's marketing and sales infrastructure and client base. 

Deepak Gurnani, head of Investcorp's hedge fund business, says: "Ballast is an important addition to our single manager platform. At Investcorp our focus has always been on alpha. Ballast is a long-short hedge fund manager that has demonstrated its capabilities to generate alpha and strong returns with low market beta.  It is one of the few managers to have the ability to generate alpha on the long and short side. Our alliance with Ballast follows our previous successful partnerships, and we expect to continue to add additional such relationships in order to offer our clients the opportunity to invest with best-in-class hedge fund managers."

Kaynor adds: "Partnership with Investcorp offers Ballast a unique opportunity to join Investcorp's well differentiated platform with proven global reach and experience. We continue to see significant advantages for our strategy as stock correlations break down and alpha generation sets up readily. We value the opportunity to align ourselves with a well known and stable organisation. We look forward to leveraging our relationship with Investcorp to enhance our business growth and capabilities."