Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital LP today announced it has hired Brendt Stallings and Husam Nazer as portfolio managers and partners for DoubleLine Equity LP, a newly created Doubleline affiliate to help expand the firm’s product line-up into equity investment strategies.
Stallings and Nazer were previously group managing directors at TCW, where they managed $5 billion invested in common stocks.
DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach, who previously served as chief investment officer of TCW and headed that firm’s largest investment group, launched DoubleLine in December 2009 with more than 40 of his former colleagues. The firm now employs more than 80 people, is majority-owned by its employees and manages more than $53 billion in asset allocation, bond and now stock strategies.
“In my 24 years at TCW, I knew well the firm’s many equity groups and styles,” Gundlach said in a statement. “Brendt and Husam stood out as the most talented and versatile of those investment teams. During several years of the most treacherous markets in generations, working with me as chief investment officer, they delivered returns of over 40 percent against a flat result for the S&P 500.”
Gundlach said that Brendt and Husam’s investment philosophy is “consistent with and complements those already in place at DoubleLine." Gundlach added that he will explore other complementary partnerships and acquisitions to help diversify its business.
DoubleLine Equity is managing portfolios seeded by a DoubleLine affiliate as well as by Stallings and Nazer. The two portfolio managers expect to hire at least five investment professionals this year.
“Husam and I are enthusiastic about teaming up with DoubleLine to launch DoubleLine Equity,” Stallings said in a statement. “We know the DoubleLine team well, having worked with Jeffrey and many of his team for 13 years. With its entrepreneurial culture, employee ownership and investment acumen, we can think of no better partner than DoubleLine.”