Company Name: | Salient Partners |
Company Type: | Private |
Foundation: | 2002 |
Defunct: | November 2022 |
Fate: | Acquired by Westwood Holdings Group |
Key People: | John A. Blaisdell (CEO) Jeremy L. Radcliffe (President) W. Ben Hunt (Chief Investment Strategist) |
Location: | Houston, United States |
Assets: | $14 billion (2017)[1] |
Homepage: | www.salientpartners.com |
Salient Partners was a private equity firm based in Houston, Texas, with offices in New York City, San Francisco and Newport Beach. The firm's strategies included emerging markets,[1] real estate investment trusts (REITs), master limited partnership (MLPs) investments,[2] managed futures,[3] risk parity funds,[4] and liquid alternative investments.[5] The firm was acquired by Westwood Holdings Group in 2022.
The firm was founded in 2002 by Andrew Linbeck, Haag Sherman, Jeremy Radcliffe and John Blaisdell.[6] In 2003, the Sanders Morris Harris Group (SMHG) secured a 50% stake in the firm, and Salient combined its assets with SMHG's Pinnacle Management & Trust Co.[7] SMHG sold its ownership interests back to Salient in 2008.[8] In 2015, Salient was the third largest Houston-area money management firmranked by local assets under management at $21.5 billion.[9] That same year, the firm completed its acquisition of Forward Management LLC, reporting a resulting $27.6 billion in combined assets.[10]
In 2012, the firm launched the Salient Risk Parity Index, purportedly the first of its kind for the industry.[11]
In February 2020, J. Philip Ferguson took over as interim CEO following the unexpected death of founder and long-term CEO John Blaisdell. Later that year the board appointed Bill Enszer as CEO. Prior to becoming CEO, Enszer was a managing director with the firm for over 10 years.[12]
In November 2022, Salient Partners was acquired by Westwood Holdings, an investment and wealth management firm based in Dallas.[13]
Dr. W. Ben Hunt, Salient Partners' Chief Investment Strategist is the primary author for Salient's blog and newsletter Epsilon Theory,[14] a site that analyzes market trends through the lens of game theory.[15]