The remaining 30% of Friess equity will be controlled by 11 members of that firms' staff, including founder Foster Friess and chief investment officer Bill D'Alonzo. Friess has said he will invest a substantial portion of proceeds from the sale in the Brandywine Funds, making him the largest shareholder in each fund that bares the Brandywine name.
Friess Associates was founded in 1974 and now has offices in Greenville, Del., Wyoming and Arizona. In addition to overseeing the Brandywine fund, the firm also advises two other growth equity funds as well as separate accounts for foundations, corporations and high-net-worth individual investors.
"I think the opportunity in separate accounts is substantial," said one official speaking at a press conference last week with top AMG executives. Executives also said the firm's "highly disciplined and highly systematic" investment style attracted AMG to the deal, adding that Friess Associates' 30-member investment team's exhaustive research is more effective than "traditional Wall Street" research methods.
The Fries deal comes nearly a month after AMG announced it will acquire 60% interest in Welch & Forbes of Boston, an investment manager with $4.2 million in assets under management. The terms of that deal were not disclosed, nor was the date at which the acquisition would close
