Firetrail bulks up investment team
Hot on the heels of luring Barrenjoey banker Dean Fremder, Pinnacle boutique Firetrail has added another equity analyst to its lineup.
Managing director of Firetrail Patrick Hodgens. Dion Georgopoulos
Street Talk can reveal the investment manager has nabbed Peregrine Capital portfolio manager Matthew Thomson. He will join Firetrail as an equity analyst in the new year, reporting to Australian high-conviction fund portfolio manager Scott Olsson.
Thomson has been with Peregrine – one of South Africa’s oldest hedge fund – for five years, responsible for investment analysis and portfolio management. Peregrine co-founder Clive Nates is known for investing in the Lincoln City football club, which competes in the third tier of English football.
Thomson will high-five Sean Drennan on his way out the door. The high-conviction fund analyst is set to leave Firetrail after three years to pursue an offshore opportunity.
“Sean has made a great contribution to the team over the past three years, and we understand that the move to New York was a tough decision for him,” Patrick Hodgens, managing director of Firetrail Investments, told Street Talk.
Firetrail began life in June 2018 with just $74 million, and in five years has grown its assets under management to $7.2 billion. ASX-listed Pinnacle Investment Management owns 23.5 per cent of the business. The manager is staffed with ex-Macquarie stockpickers including Hodgens, Blake Henricks and James Miller, who ran the Macquarie High Conviction Fund.
Thomson’s appointment comes as Firetrail adds Barrenjoey head of emerging companies ECM and private capital Fremder to its absolute return fund. Fremder had been with Barrenjoey since 2021 and is well-known by small-cap managers across the market.
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