Brothers Ben and Luke Doramus chose their hometown of Dallas to start a new investment firm after spending more than 20 years working on Wall Street.
D2 Asset Management, which is focused on real assets, specialty finance and structured credit, is launching with more than $1 billion in assets under management.
The premise behind D2, a moniker garnered from the two sharing the same last name, involves investing in businesses or assets, such as operating companies that own assets or a portfolio of assets, through a credit lens. D2′s primary strategy involves investing in debt by making loans.
Ben is six years older than Luke. The pair, who are co-founders and managing partners of D2, initially worked at Deutsche Bank in New York City before moving to separate ventures.
Most recently, Ben formerly was a partner and managing director of hedge fund H/2 Capital Partners. Luke’s experience includes time as partner and managing director at New York private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners.
“We touched everything from public markets to private markets, from liquid to illiquid, but everything we’ve done has always really centered around different forms of asset-based finance,” Luke said.
The firm expects today’s high interest rate environment to create opportunities in asset-based finance, private credit and commercial real estate assets in particular.
“It’s partly a moment in time where the market opportunity is attractive to us, and then it coincided with our desire to build a business and a vision of our shared values and culture,” Luke said.
The brothers have taken note of the momentum within Dallas’ financial services sector in the last several years.
“Dallas historically has had a big financial services presence, and there was always a lot of real estate, back office and middle office,” Ben said. “The migration of the front office to Dallas has been a really positive trend.”
Beyond the business case for launching D2 now and in Dallas, Ben and Luke expect their skill set overlaps and differences to be complementary in practice.
“Being able to do this together where we grew up and be in a community we have a deep attachment to has been really important to us and an important part of the story for us,” Ben said. “It’s the reason why we wanted to build a business and spend this next phase of our careers here in Dallas.”
The brothers are zeroing in on office space, likely be in Uptown Dallas. The two are also in “active discussions” with a variety of people to help build the business, from investment professionals to operations to compliance, among others.
The firm’s founding coincides with the announcement of a strategic partnership with Koch Real Estate Investments, the Dallas-based real estate arm of Koch Industries.
The KREI operation hones in real estate assets and operating companies.
“Our partnership with D2 aligns well with KREI’s strategy of collaborating with best-in-class management teams and providing flexible capital solutions,” said Jake Francis, president of KREI. “Ben and Luke’s approach to relative value while navigating complex investments through various market cycles and asset classes is impressive. We believe this strategic partnership will create significant value and we look forward to supporting D2′s growth and success.”
Terms of the partnership with KREI were undisclosed.
