Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Private equity |
Founded | 2002 |
Defunct | November 2022 |
Fate | Acquired by Westwood Holdings Group |
Headquarters | Houston, United States |
Key people | John A. Blaisdell (CEO) Jeremy L. Radcliffe (President) W. Ben Hunt (Chief Investment Strategist) |
Products | Venture capital Emerging markets Risk parity |
Total assets | $14 billion (2017) [1] |
Website | www.salientpartners.com |
Salient Partners was a private equity firm based in Houston, Texas, with offices in New York City, San Francisco and Newport Beach. The firm's strategies included emerging markets, [1] real estate investment trusts (REITs), master limited partnership (MLPs) investments, [2] managed futures, [3] risk parity funds, [4] and liquid alternative investments. [5] The firm was acquired by Westwood Holdings Group in 2022.
The firm was founded in 2002 by Andrew Linbeck, Haag Sherman, Jeremy Radcliffe and John Blaisdell. [6] In 2003, the Sanders Morris Harris Group (SMHG) secured a 50% stake in the firm, and Salient combined its assets with SMHG's Pinnacle Management & Trust Co. [7] SMHG sold its ownership interests back to Salient in 2008. [8] In 2015, Salient was the third largest Houston-area money management firm ranked by local assets under management at $21.5 billion. [9] That same year, the firm completed its acquisition of Forward Management LLC, reporting a resulting $27.6 billion in combined assets. [10]
In 2012, the firm launched the Salient Risk Parity Index, purportedly the first of its kind for the industry. [11]
In February 2020, J. Philip Ferguson took over as interim CEO following the unexpected death of founder and long-term CEO John Blaisdell. Later that year the board appointed Bill Enszer as CEO. Prior to becoming CEO, Enszer was a managing director with the firm for over 10 years. [12]
In November 2022, Salient Partners was acquired by Westwood Holdings, an investment and wealth management firm based in Dallas. [13]
Dr. W. Ben Hunt, Salient Partners' Chief Investment Strategist is the primary author for Salient's blog and newsletter Epsilon Theory, [14] a site that analyzes market trends through the lens of game theory. [15]