Whit Matthews is a senior investment director at Aberdeen Standard Investments. He spoke with Buyouts about Aberdeen’s approach to spinouts, independent sponsors and first-time managers.

What types of emerging managers get your attention at Aberdeen?

There are typically two types of emerging managers in this market. You have the groups that spin out of another firm. They have track record attribution, they’ve all worked together before – it’s a directionally clean story, and those managers tend to get traction quickly and raise successful funds in relatively short order.

At the other side of the world, and there are more of these types of managers, you have the professionals that haven’t run a firm before, they haven’t managed a portfolio before, and maybe they they haven’t worked together before. In those types of situations, operating as an independent sponsor and proving out your ability to drive deal flow, get deals done, and work with your new partners under a new umbrella is something that a lot of LPs want to see.

Check out the full interview, as published by Buyouts: https://bit.ly/2ImzGxp