A longtime mutual fund subadvisor that specializes in high yield fixed income and loan strategies is diving more directly into the mutual fund space. Yet don't expect them to roll out a massive lineup of funds just yet.

John F. "Jack" O'Connor DDJ Capital Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development

On Thursday Waltham, Massachusetts-based DDJ Capital launched its first mutual fund, the DDJ Opportunistic High Yield Fund, with back-office support from DST's ALPS. In addition to its core institutional distribution through consultants, the DDJ team is also targeting the high net worth and ultra high net worth space, through RIAs.

"We do think there is a real opportunity for us with the registered investment advisors," Jack O'Connor, senior vice president and head of business development and client service at DDJ, tells MFWire. "We are beginning the process, in collaboration with ALPs, of calling on the platforms."

He's already added two internal client associates to support DDJ's existing distribution team.

"We actually preemptively hired a couple of people to the team," O'Connor says.

"We're still intently focused on the institutional space," O'Connor adds. "This doesn't change our strategy."

The decision to launch a mutual fund, O'Connor says, was inspired by the institutional consulting world that DDJ already knows well. Consultants, he says, "want to be able to offer the strategy across all types of clients," and to do that they want the strategy in all different types of vehicles: separate accounts, commingled vehicles, and traditional mutual funds.

O'Connor says that DDJ has one other strategy, a bank loan one that's relatively new, that the team might consider making a mutual fund version of.

DDJ dates back to 1996 and now has more than $8.5 billion in assets under management. As of June 30, O'Connor says, 32 percent of that AUM was subadvised for mutual funds. They subadvise for Danske (Denmark's largest bank), Northern Trust, Principal, and Russell. 

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