Andrew McCreath’s Forge First buys Sui Generis

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Two Toronto-based hedge funds are consolidating in the midst of a difficult year for the industry.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Andrew McCreath, president and chief executive officer of Forge First Asset Management Inc., said his firm has purchased Sui Generis Investment Partners, which was co-founded by the late Jim Doak. A formal announcement is expected shortly.

Mr. McCreath, who is also a host with Business News Network (BNN) and a former mutual fund manager with Sentry Investments Inc., did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Sui Generis was started in 2015 by Daniel Lloyd, a former portfolio manager at MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier Inc. and Mr. Doak.

The company hit a major roadblock early on after Mr. Doak died suddenly whilst on a business trip to Mongolia. Mr. Doak was well known on Bay Street, having run a number of buy-side firms, including Enterprise Capital Management Inc. and Megantic Asset Management Inc.

Sui Generis' investment strategy, like that of Forge First, is based on taking long and short positions in equities.

"For us it is an opportunity to get a proven money manager," said Mr. McCreath. "We're strengthening and broadening the fundamental research capabilities of our team led by an individual [Mr. Lloyd] who has a proven track record in shorting stocks and managing risk."

Forge First, which was started in 2012, offers two long/short equity funds.

The overall Canadian hedge fund industry has struggled this year, as investors gravitate towards long-only index funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and yield-oriented securities, amid a banner year for the overall S&P/TSX composite, which is trading near a record-high. The Scotiabank Canadian hedge fund asset weighted index, which tracks funds that have $15-million or more under management, was up 0.9 per cent year to date as of the end of September. The S&P/TSX composite by comparison was up 2.3 per cent.