Turner Investment Partners has made the first of its planned steps to broaden its characteristic growth investment style. The firm is adding four new funds from Clover Capital Management in Pittsford, New York. The Berwyn, Pennsylvania firm is adopting the quartet of funds from value house Clover in a deal that shares fees but does not otherwise merge the firms.

While Turner and Clover will each remain distinctly and independently owned, synergy of corporate culture played a big role in the arrangement.

"We feel that the partnership is a good fit," said Bruce Zewe, communications director for Turner. "One of the things that's interesting is that both of our equity processes involve quantitative, fundamental, and technical analyses. We're both autonomous firms and we have similar organizational values and cultures and our reward systems are the same as well."

The two had already been working together, as Clover has been a member of the TIP Trust, which carries out administration for a number of fund groups. Now, however, the Clover funds are joining the Turner family of funds, with Clover becoming the sub-advisor.

• Clover Small Cap Value Fund becomes Turner Small Cap Value Fund
  
• Clover Equity Value Fund becomes Turner Midcap Value Fund
  
• Clover Max Cap Fund becomes Turner Large Cap Value Fund
  
• Clover Fixed Income Fund becomes Turner CorePlus Fixed Income Fund
  

With the addition of the new funds, Turner will turn its energies towards increasing distribution of the existing funds, rather than developing new value-focused products.

Clover has $139 million in its mutual funds. While the firm has a total of $1.2 billion under management, the bulk of that is in institutional separate accounts business. According to Zewe, the businesses will not cross over investment expertise in their separate accounts businesses.

What's next for the ambitious firm?

Turner has set its sights abroad, looking to add another piece to the investment strategy puzzle for its mutual funds.

"We are seeking out an international investing team that will further broaden our investment scope," said Zewe, "There's nothing in the works right now, but we are looking. That will be, very likely, our next step."

 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE