PAAMCO Prisma Holdings LLC, a fund of funds with $30 billion in assets under management or advisement, has laid off some local employees.
Cuts came in functions that overlapped following PAAMCO of Irvine’s merger last year with Prisma in New York, said Anne-Gaelle Carlton, a member of the merged company’s six-member executive committee.
Carlton declined to disclose how many people were laid off.
The company currently employs 142; in August it had 175.
Some employees are transferring to a new PAAMCO-affiliated company being formed by former Chief Executive Jane Buchan.
Carlton said the layoffs are unrelated to the company’s results this year.
“Performance is actually quite good,” she said, adding that the firm is beating all benchmarks except for one.
It will remain in Irvine, she said.
“We’re committed to Orange County.”
Buchan and three others formed Pacific Alternative Asset Management Co. in 2000.
The firm provides institutional investors advice on hedge fund investments. It typically seeks a return higher than a relatively safe bond but lower than riskier equities.
Last year, it merged with Prisma, the hedge fund unit of legendary Wall Street firm KKR Inc. Both Buchan and Prisma founder Girish Reddy served as co-chief executives until stepping down on Aug. 1.
Buchan told the Business Journal in July that she’ll focus on a quantitative fund PAAMCO will spin out on Jan. 1.
When the PAAMCO-Prisma merger announcement was made a year ago, the combined firms were said to have $34 billion in assets under management or advisement. Since then, that’s fallen to $30 billion, which Buchan attributed in a July interview to “advisory money” departing, which she said caused no turmoil.
She said PAAMCO Prisma “is in good shape.”
This year, the firm introduced investment strategies, such as alternative beta, global volatility arbitrage, and long-equity alpha for large established portfolio managers.
