Blue Harbour Group was an American

investment firm An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under the ...

that managed capital for

pension funds A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

, endowments, sovereign wealth funds,

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

and other institutional investors. The company was based in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. Blue Harbour had an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) component to its investment process, and had been a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

History

Blue Harbour Group was founded in 2004 by Clifton Robbins, also known as Cliff Robbins, a former partner at private equity giants KKR and

General Atlantic General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for ...

. As of June 2019, the firm managed more than $2.2 billion in capital, which it mainly invested from two funds, the long-short Blue Harbour Strategic Value Partners fund and the long-only Blue Harbour Active Ownership Partners fund. Blue Harbour’s investment team included CEO Cliff Robbins and Managing Directors Peter Carlin, Robb LeMasters, Todd Marcy and David Silverman. On February 28, 2020, CEO and Founder Clifton S. Robbins announced that he would be closing Blue Harbour Group, which had $2 billion of assets under management, to set up a family office. He informed investors that Blue Harbour intended to return all investors' capital later in the year and close the funds.

Investment strategy

Blue Harbour took ownership stakes in publicly traded companies whose management teams were looking to increase in value. Blue Harbour focused on North American undervalued smallcap and midcap companies.

Awards

In 2013, Business Insider named Blue Harbour Strategic Value Partners as one of “The 30 Hedge Funds That Crushed Wall Street in 2013.” Blue Harbour Group won the 2016 "Best U.S. Activist Hedge Fund Manager" by Hedgeweek, and the 2017 Hedge Fund Industry Awards' "Activist Hedge Fund Manager of the Year" by Institutional Investor.

References

{{reflist, 2 Financial services companies established in 2004 Investment companies of the United States Financial services companies of the United States Companies based in Greenwich, Connecticut 2004 establishments in the United States 2004 establishments in Connecticut Companies established in 2004