First Eagle adds Purva Patel to its high-yield municipal team

First Eagle Investments hired Purva Patel as managing director and senior investment specialist on its high-yield municipal credit team. Patel started July 18 and is based in Chicago. 

Patel joins First Eagle from Nuveen Investments, where she was senior vice president for over two decades and managing director since 2019. 

Patel’s hire boosts First Eagle’s distribution efforts; she will be partnering with the firm’s distribution teams across its U.S. wealth solutions, institutional, international wealth solutions and retirement channels, the firm said.

“First Eagle has significantly expanded its distribution capabilities over the last several years and the sales force has embraced the high yield municipal bond strategy,” said John Miller, chief investment officer and head of First Eagle’s high-yield municipal credit team. 

“Because of the fortuitous combination of market opportunity, attractive yield and our outperformance,” Miller said, the firm’s high-yield municipal strategy, which it adopted about six months ago, has been very successful thus far. Earlier this week, the firm announced its high-yield municipal credit fund had surpassed $2 billion in assets.

It’s been “an exciting adventure” building the team, Miller said, and the group’s entrepreneurial spirit has set it apart from competitors. 

“While the expertise of the individuals within their roles in First Eagle’s municipal credit team is a given, the culture and collaboration are even more important elements, which make the group unique,” he said. “I’m so pleased that it is coming together very well thus far.” 

“First Eagle’s distribution team already has great relationships in the field,” Patel said. “I hope to enhance and broaden those relationships and help the team to work with even more advisors who use municipals in their asset allocation models.”

“My entire career has been in client-facing roles where I have supported or marketed a variety of municipal investment strategies to retail and institutional clients, as well as home office partners,” she said. “These experiences, along with working with John through some interesting markets over the years, have helped prepare me for this new role.”

Patel called the decision to accept a role at First Eagle “an easy choice,” noting the firm is well-regarded by clients. Its commitments to building municipal exposure and increasing assets under management from the ground up were also attractive, she said.

As she settles in at the firm, Patel is eager to embrace the entrepreneurial nature of her new role. 

“Our team has an opportunity to build a fresh municipal investment lineup at First Eagle,” she said. “The expertise each team member brings to the business puts us in a distinct position to create, manage and distribute municipal investment strategies that are beneficial to our clients.”

“Purva has an incredible reputation in the field and is extremely well-liked and respected,” Miller said. “In addition, her 25-year background in municipal bonds enables her to be a valuable resource to wholesalers and educate those who have spent more time on equities or other asset classes in the past.”

The asset management firm, headquartered in New York, has $138 billion in assets under management and more than 600 employees.