AFR: Petra Capital hires Salter Brothers duo for new funds management arm

Salter Brothers portfolio managers Issam Eid and Rajeev de Silva have joined Petra Capital to set up a new fund.

The hires come as Petra Capital branches out from stockbroking and into funds management.

The venture, called Arrow Asset Management, planned to launch its first fund – open to wholesale investors and high-net-worth types – in early 2022.

The duo last worked together at Salter Brothers, joining in January 2020 and running an ASX emerging companies strategy which focused on stocks in the $300 million market cap range. Their portfolio, which had better than benchmark returns, included names like Pacific Current Group, Praemium, Swick Mining and Ansarda.

Eid and de Silva have 20 odd years’ experience, of which they’ve worked together for 15 years. This included a decade at Sigma Funds Management (their gig before joining Salter Brothers in 2020) and shorter stretches at ING and Credit Suisse.

At Petra Capital, they will focus on Arrow Asset Management’s plans to launch an absolute return, high conviction small companies fund whose investment universe will include industrials and resources.

They plan to run 50 positions at most, with individual portfolio weights of 1 to 5 percent at the time they are added to the portfolio.

At Salter Brothers, the firm’s founder and chief executive Robert Salter has taken over the management oversight of Eid and de Silva’s strategy.

Source: The Australian Financial Review