Commodities Hedge Fund Taylor Woods Capital Management Restructures

Investing in commodities can be a wild ride, and that is certainly true for Taylor Woods Capital Management.

The hedge fund is restructuring through a partnership with Robb Turner, a former senior partner at energy-focused private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners, and will change its name to Madava Asset Management, according to a letter to investors today. The firm plans to “transition into a broader investment platform as a global energy investment firm offering multi-asset strategies in publicly-traded energy and commodity investments,” the letter says.

Taylor Woods Capital Management was started in 2011 by George “Beau” Taylor, former global head of commodity proprietary trading at Credit Suisse, and business partner Trevor Woods. Taylor has taken over from Woods the day-to-day management of the Taylor Woods Fund, which will become the “Madava Energy Commodity Fund.” And as part of the restructuring, Turner is buying Woods’s equity in the firm.

“Robb and I will serve as co-managing members of Madava,” Taylor writes in the letter. “We will jointly lead the new firm and share responsibilities and decision-making related to oversight of the funds and the asset management business.”

The firm’s flagship Taylor Woods Master Fund has posted mixed results in its six-year run. It lost 14.85 percent last year, but was one of the industry’s top preforming funds in 2015 with returns of 18.44 percent. It was up 12.44 percent in 2014 and 15.61 percent in 2013, but posted losses in its first two years of operation.

Taylor stressed in his letter that there is no bad blood between Woods, Taylor and Turner. “Trevor and I remain good friends and his departure from the firm has been very amicable,” Taylor writes. “He is an excellent investor who delivered strong returns for our firm during his tenure and we wish him great success as he pursues the next phase of his career.”

According to the letter, Madava Asset Management plans to begin this year the Madava Energy Credit Fund, with Turner serving as chair of the investment committee.

“We believe the tremendous growth that has occurred in the North American energy business during the last 10 years has created a robust environment for investing and the right timing for us to launch our new firm,” Taylor says in the letter.