Two former fixed-income portfolio managers at Turner Investment Partners have begun ramping up assets for a new fund, Midanek/Pak Advisors, which was launched at the beginning of October. Jim Midanek and John Pak, co-managers of the new Walnut Creek, Calif., mutual fund, are targeting $250 million in assets by the middle of next year. Midanek noted the fund will specialize in mortgage-backeds, asset-backeds and capital structure security selection and will be run as a so-called ultra-short term fund.
The new fund manager is in the process of marketing itself to the advisory community where there is a vast amount of cash on the sidelines, Midanek said. "The ultra-short fund is ideal at this moment," explained Midanek, noting money market funds' cash positions are moving higher and these funds could juice returns by putting money to work in an ultra-short fund. Now is also an attractive time to launch the new fund because of the recent demise of stable value funds, he added.
Looking ahead, after establishing the ultra-short fund and building a track record, Midanek and Pak plan to revisit the separate accounts space. "Our first phase is to build [the ultra-short] business, then have enough of a footprint to go back into the institutional space and build a core and short duration separate accounts fund," said Midanek.
Midanek/Pak anticipates hiring an additional portfolio manager by the middle of next year.