Power Corporation’s Sagard Holdings launches Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners

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By Ted Liu

Sagard Holdings, a multi-strategy alternative asset manager, has launched Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners (SHRP) to be led by Partner, David MacNaughtan.

Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners aims to be a premier investor in the life sciences sector, with a focus on traditional royalty or credit-like investments protected by strong intellectual property to generate attractive cash-yielding returns that are uncorrelated with public markets.

MacNaughtan is a veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry, having previously held positions in both pharmaceutical investment and pharmaceutical firms, including positions as Senior Principal with CPPIB Credit Investments Inc., Principal Consultant with Patent Pending Capital Advisors, EVP & Co-Head, Royalty Monetization Fund with DRI Capital, VP of Business Development with Paladin Labs Inc., Investment Manager with Royal Bank Capital Corp. (RBCC), and Process Development Engineer with Hemosol.

Based on in the Toronto offices of Sagard Holdings, MacNaughtan will be joined by Ali Alagheband and Raja Manchanda, previously Managing Director and VP at DRI Capital respectively.

Wholly owned by Power Corporation of Canada (TSX: POW), Sagard Holdings now invests across five asset classes: private equity, public equity, private credit (Sagard Credit Partners), royalties (Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners), and venture capital (Portag3 Ventures and Diagram).

photo credit: Sagard Holdings

News Release

Sagard Holdings launches Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners with hiring of world-class team

TORONTO, Ontario, January 7, 2019 – Sagard Holdings, a multi-strategy alternative asset manager, today announced the launch of Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners (“SHRP”), under the leadership of David MacNaughtan.

Mr. MacNaughtan is a 25-year veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry, and previously ran the intellectual property investment strategy at the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPPIB”), as well as the Royalty Monetization Fund at DRI Capital (“DRI”), a healthcare investment manager focused specifically on the royalties asset class.

SHRP aims to be a premier investor in the life sciences sector, with a focus on traditional royalty or credit-like investments protected by strong intellectual property to generate attractive cash-yielding returns that are uncorrelated with public markets. Royalty-based transactions are increasingly pursued in the life sciences industry as a means of managing risk and accelerating the returns on innovation, and SHRP will bring its proven expertise to develop tailored solutions to help royalty holders maximize value.
“The team and I are excited to be launching SHRP on the Sagard Holdings platform, which we believe complements our expertise, relationships and collective 40 years of experience investing in healthcare royalties,” MacNaughtan said. “The opportunity to join a blue-chip ecosystem and plug into Sagard’s investment and operating infrastructure is very attractive and will allow the team to focus on sourcing and structuring high quality deals.”

Ali Alagheband and Raja Manchanda will join MacNaughtan in launching SHRP. Mr. Alagheband was previously Managing Director at DRI, where he served as a member of the Investment Committee and led, co-led or approved the deployment of capital through three healthcare royalty monetization funds, working with MacNaughtan for over seven years. Mr. Manchanda also previously worked with Alagheband and MacNaughtan at DRI, where he focused on the sourcing and evaluation of investment opportunities for the past decade.

Together, the three have a track record of investing and managing in excess of $3 billion in royalties, credit and equities and have extensive networks in the healthcare industry.

“With David and the team’s extensive experience in healthcare royalty investments, we are confident that SHRP will be a significant opportunity for Sagard Holdings,” said Adam Vigna, Chief Investment Officer of Sagard Holdings, who previously spent six years working with MacNaughtan at CPPIB.

Paul Desmarais III, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sagard Holdings, emphasized that the healthcare royalties group complements Sagard Holdings’ existing credit, fintech and equity businesses and exemplifies the platform’s strategy of addressing the market’s complex capital needs with flexible solutions driven by deep industry and product knowledge and insight.

“We are excited to welcome world class talent such as David, Ali and Raja to Sagard Holdings. The launch of Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners is our next step in building a multi-strategy alternative asset manager,” said Desmarais III.

The SHRP team will be based in the Toronto offices of Sagard Holdings.

About Sagard Holdings

Sagard Holdings is a multi-strategy alternative asset manager with professionals located in Montreal, Toronto, New York, Paris and Singapore. Sagard looks to generate attractive returns by matching investment opportunities with flexible capital solutions and pairing entrepreneurs with teams that have deep industry knowledge. Sagard develops long-term partnerships and empowers the growth of its investments through a unique global network of portfolio companies, limited partners, advisors and other valued relationships. Today, Sagard invests across five asset classes: private equity, public equity, private credit (Sagard Credit Partners), royalties (Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners), and venture capital (Portag3 Ventures and Diagram). Sagard Holdings was founded by Power Corporation of Canada in 2005 as a complement to its global investment holdings.

For press inquiries, contact: Adam Daifallah, 514.316.7089 adaifallah@hatleystrategies.com
For investor inquiries, contact: Janice Woo, 646.774.1579 woo@sagardholdings.com