Men and women walk outside the house of Jefferies Money Group offices in Manhattan, New York, U.S., December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Jan 18 (Reuters) – Jefferies Economic Team Inc (JEF.N) is abandoning an effort and hard work to elevate a $1 billion fund to purchase stakes in non-public equity fund supervisors, giving up on a niche and profitable corner of asset management, people today common with the make a difference mentioned.

It is a blow to Jefferies’ Leucadia Asset Administration division, which features alternate expense products and solutions this kind of as non-public equity. The asset management business described a 52% drop in net revenues in the three months to the stop of November to $43 million, citing reduced investment decision returns.

Leucadia Asset Management partnered in 2019 with Stonyrock Companions LP, a non-public fairness firm launched by Blackstone Inc (BX.N) and Carlyle Team Inc (CG.O) veterans, to increase the fund to spend in non-public equity fund supervisor stakes.

Dubbed Stonyrock Alt Fund I, the fund was trying to find to elevate $1 billion but had amassed only $38 million as of April 2021, according to a regulatory submitting at the time.

The sources requested anonymity due to the fact the make any difference is private. A Jefferies spokesperson declined to remark. Stonyrock executives did not right away respond to requests for remark.

Traders are becoming increasingly skeptical that there are more than enough desirable opportunities to receive stakes in private fairness firms to guidance the quantity of committed funds that have launched with a concentration on this strategy.

The market for non-public fairness fund supervisor stakes is dominated by a number of large firms like Blue Owl Funds Inc (OWL.N) by means of its Dyal franchise, Blackstone Inc (BX.N) and Petershill Partners, a device of Goldman Sachs Team Inc (GS.N).

A handful of other corporations, together with Investcorp, Bonaccord Money and Hunter Level Capital, contend by snapping up the pursuits of mainly center-market place supervisors.

Stonyrock and Jefferies created at least one financial commitment jointly – the acquisition in 2019 of a stake in Oak Hill Cash, a Stamford, Connecticut-dependent non-public equity firm…