MSIM hires Affinity Investment Advisors

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has hired the investment team at Affinity Investment Advisors LLC and acquired its assets in the process, according to an internal memo.
Affinity is an Irvine, Calif.-based independent registered investment adviser specializing in disciplined large-cap equity investing, which manages assets for a variety of clients in the institutional and retail separate account space.
Affinity employs a bottom-up systematic stock selection process coupled with fundamental stock analysis and comprehensive risk management, seeks to outperform the index with a similar risk profile in all market environments.
The company was founded in Gregory Lai, who was formerly an active equity portfolio manager and quantitative analyst at Pacific Investment Management Company LLC of Newport Beach, Calif.
Mr. Lai will now take on the role of managing director at MSIM.
He will be joined by three portfolio managers, a portfolio specialist and a member of the U.S. & Americas Distribution team.
“As we continue to enhance our traditional product offerings through both organic launches and targeted acquisitions, Affinity will be an important complement to our current community of boutiques,” said Dennis Shea, Morgan Stanley’s head and chief investment officer of Global Equitiesand Yie-Hsin Hung, head of global strategic acqusitions & alliances for MSIM, according to the memo.
Affinity managed over $500 million in assets at the time of the acquisition.