Funds Hub

As predicted last November, troubled fund firm Crosby’s joint venture Apollo Multi Asset Management has struggled to attract assets and today Crosby announced it is pulling out as a partner in the loss-making boutique.

Apollo, a fund of funds venture with fund manager Tom McGrath, produced some respectable performance from its Balanced fund but attracted just 31.2 million pounds in assets.

It will now have to repay regulatory capital of around $180,000 to Crosby as well as the balance of a loan Crosby had made.

A vehicle representing the Nomura Employee Benefit Trust (of which, by the way, Crosy CEO Simon Fry is a potential beneficiary) now plans to take a controlling interest in Apollo.

Crosby hit the headlines in 2007 with its purchase of funds from collapsed firm Forsyth, but, with assets since having crumbled, the deal proved an ill-timed one that the firm later regretted.

It is now on a mission to cut costs and sell assets wherever it can.

Fund management, at its core, is very often a volume business and Apollo’s struggle to attract assets in what have been extremely tough fundraising conditions looks to have cost it Crosby’s support.