Daniel Pinto, Stanhope Capital: from acorn to tree

Date: 17 Jan 2023

Karen Jones

Citywealth Editor and CEO Karen Jones interviews Daniel Pinto, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive and Founding Partner of Stanhope Capital.

Founded in 2004, Stanhope Capital who back in 2011 had 60 staff and £4.5bn aum, sought to move away from the concept of family office to a model of private investment office. Working with entrepreneurs and wealthy families, Daniel Pinto, who some might think is a dark horse, and his team manage investment portfolios, whilst also having developed more dedicated expertise over the years in private equity.

Pinto has since gone on to merge with multiple companies, the latest two of which increase his staff numbers and aum to 160 staff and $29bn with four offices in Europe and the four in the USA.

Stanhope Capital’s staff have backgrounds in a range of areas including asset management, private equity, hedge funds and M&A. The average size of clients is £35mn with bigger clients at circa £250mn and smaller ones at £10mn, which is entry level. They have a mix of entrepreneurs and inherited wealth, and these entrepreneurs tend to be around the 50 age mark. Pinto comments: “There is no real cluster of businesses or ways clients have made money but, for instance, clients have done well with commercial property and from selling a business to private equity players.”

From past knowledge of Pinto, he likes a similar client base and culture between the firms he merges with and the staff to have good educational and career pedigrees similar to Stanhope. Having similar managers and funds also helps to show the organisations are on the same page with strategies and outlook. Stanhope Capital keep a solid team involved in ongoing investment and manager research “so that we are on top of changes and developments.”

“We put a roadmap together for clients. We try hard to help them understand risks and know that whatever people say they really don’t like to lose money. We deploy capital over a few months, not in one go, so that we can see how the client reacts to decisions and market movements. Then we adjust the strategy based on what we hear. We like to do a three to five year roadmap because, in less time, it’s not easy to make a positive difference in portfolios. The roadmap is not rigid – we can move left or right of it to manage risks properly but always keep an eye on the clients agreed parameters.”

Stanhope Capital’s recent mergers, making the incoming teams as shareholders, to give them ‘skin in the game’ include Forbes Family Trust in 2021, run by Keith Bloomfield, CEO, who had $11bn in AUM and 4 offices (they had 100 families) and 50 staff.

Now they add a recent acquisition in Luxembourg – Arche Associates with c15 staff which is led by three individuals who are ex Rothschild with Frederick Otto as CEO. Set up in 2012 they have 2bn AUM and have been running funds with similar managers to Stanhope thus the synergy. Arche also have significant expertise in private equity. Stanhope also have their own vehicles namely the Stanhope Entrepreneurs Fund and The Portman Square German Real Estate Fund in this space.

With Mckinsey’s private market report in March 2022 saying “Private equity continued to drive global growth in private markets being the highest-performing”, Daniel Pinto and Stanhope Capital and his new additions will have UHNW clients champing at the bit.