Blue Harbour Group

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Blue Harbour Group
IndustryInvestment Management
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide (investors); North America (investments)
Key people
Clifton S. Robbins (Founder and CEO)
AUMUS$ 2.1 billion
(as of June 30, 2019)[1]
Number of employees
18
Websitewww.bhgrp.com

Blue Harbour Group was an American investment firm that managed capital for pension funds, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, labor unions and other institutional investors.[2] The company was based in Greenwich, Connecticut.[2]

Blue Harbour had an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) component to its investment process, and had been a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.[3]

History[edit]

Blue Harbour Group was founded in 2004 by Clifton Robbins,[4] also known as Cliff Robbins, a former partner at private equity giants KKR[5] and General Atlantic.[6]

As of June 2019, the firm managed more than $2.2 billion in capital,[6] which it mainly invested from two funds, the long-short Blue Harbour Strategic Value Partners fund and the long-only Blue Harbour Active Ownership Partners fund.[7] Blue Harbour’s investment team included CEO Cliff Robbins and Managing Directors Peter Carlin, Robb LeMasters, Todd Marcy and David Silverman.[citation needed]

On February 28, 2020, CEO and Founder Clifton S. Robbins announced that he would be closing Blue Harbour Group, which had $2 billion of assets under management, to set up a family office.[8][9] He informed investors that Blue Harbour intended to return all investors' capital later in the year and close the funds.[8][10]

Investment strategy[edit]

Blue Harbour took ownership stakes in publicly traded companies whose management teams were looking to increase in value.[11] Blue Harbour focused on North American undervalued smallcap and midcap companies.[12]

Awards[edit]

In 2013, Business Insider named Blue Harbour Strategic Value Partners as one of “The 30 Hedge Funds That Crushed Wall Street in 2013.”[13]

Blue Harbour Group won the 2016 "Best U.S. Activist Hedge Fund Manager" by Hedgeweek,[14] and the 2017 Hedge Fund Industry Awards' "Activist Hedge Fund Manager of the Year" by Institutional Investor.[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The largest managers of hedge funds (P&I Sep 2019)". No. Special Report Hedge Funds. United States: Pensions & Investments. Crain Communications Inc. 16 September 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Blue Harbour Discloses Core Holdings". Institutional Investors Alpha. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  3. ^ "Signatory Directory | Principles for Responsible Investment". www.unpri.org. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  4. ^ "Clifton Robbins". Business Week.[dead link]
  5. ^ "Blue Harbour Group". Insider Monkey. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  6. ^ a b "The Gentleman Activist". www.institutionalinvestor.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  7. ^ "Blue Harbour Group is Bullish on Babcock & Wilcox Co (BWC) and Reports a 6.0% Stake". Insider Monkey (BWC). Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  8. ^ a b Zuckerman, Gregory (2020-02-28). "WSJ News Exclusive | Activist Investor Robbins Closing His Firm". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  9. ^ "Why Cliff Robbins Decided to Close Blue Harbour Group". Institutional Investor. 28 February 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-06-12. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Following Strong 2019, Blue Harbour Group to Return Investor Capital Later This Year". GlobeNewswire. 28 February 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-02-29. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  11. ^ "Chico's Luring Activist Seen as LBO Target: Real M&A". Bloomberg. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  12. ^ "Activist fund Blue Harbour Group takes stake in Tribune Co". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  13. ^ a b Yu, Keith. "2017 Manager Winners - Institutional Investor's Hedge Fund Industry Awards". www.hedgefundindustryawards.com. Archived from the original on 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  14. ^ "Hedgeweek USA Awards 2016 - The Winners". United States: Hedge Week. Global Fund Media Ltd. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2020.