DDJ Celebrates 25 Years!
This March marks a significant milestone for DDJ as the firm celebrates its 25th anniversary. In 1996, using the insights that I honed in my previous roles as a portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments and portfolio manager and analyst at T. Rowe Price, I co-founded DDJ. Since the inception of the firm, DDJ has consistently applied the investment process that we originally developed, which is premised upon fundamental analysis of each investment opportunity with an emphasis on exploiting the inefficiencies within the lower tier of the high yield credit market.
What began with me and fewer than a dozen other employees working from a small office in a Wellesley strip mall has evolved into a globally-recognized, 54-employee asset manager entrusted with overseeing more than $8 billion in capital on behalf of corporate and public defined benefit plans, Taft-Hartley plans, mutual fund sponsors, foundations, and other institutional investors in both North America and Europe. The firm’s sole focus remains investing in the high yield market.
I am so proud of what we have been able to build at DDJ over the past 25 years. During this time, I have had the privilege to work with and learn from great colleagues, as well as the opportunity to mentor young professionals and watch them flourish. Our phenomenal clients, several of which have engaged DDJ as investment manager for over a decade, have entrusted us as stewards of their capital, and we believe that we have fulfilled that trust. Over more than two decades, navigating multiple credit cycles that were impacted by three recessions, we have, on a net-of-fee basis, substantially outperformed the broad high yield index, while generating comparable performance to the S&P 500 with much less volatility. While past performance is no guarantee of future results, I believe that this performance track record illustrates the soundness of our investment process, and we look forward to serving our clients for the next quarter century and beyond.
At DDJ, we recognize that achieving this milestone would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment from our clients. It has been our privilege to work with you and as we celebrate this 25th anniversary, we thank you for entrusting us with your capital and celebrating our continued partnership.
Sincerely,
David Breazzano
President
DDJ Capital Management