Church Capital

David R. Church, the founder, serves as the sole portfolio manager and makes every investment decision. He also acts as chief compliance officer. The firm does not employ sector analysts or a research staff, and all position sizing, trade execution, and risk management flow through Church himself. This single-decision-maker structure has been in place since the firm launched in 2001.

Church Capital pursues an event-driven, long/short equity strategy with a focus on hard catalysts. The firm invests across merger arbitrage, distressed credit, post-bankruptcy equities, litigation-linked claims, insurance runoff liabilities, and special situations. Positions are typically event-specific, with value realization tied to legal, regulatory, or transactional triggers rather than directional market moves.

The portfolio is highly concentrated, historically holding between 15 and 25 single-name positions. The top five positions can represent more than 40 percent of net exposure. Net exposure has ranged from approximately -10 to +80 percent over time, and the firm has operated in net-short posture during certain periods of broad market dislocation.

Church Capital manages outside capital but treats AUM as a risk input rather than a growth target. The firm has a track record of returning capital to investors when the opportunity set contracts, rather than diluting returns across additional positions. This discipline means the fund can shrink meaningfully during periods Church views as unfavorable for the strategy.

All idea generation is performed by David Church directly, drawing on a network developed over two decades in event-driven investing. The firm's focus on litigation-linked claims, bankruptcy reorganizations, and insurance runoff liabilities means a substantial portion of the pipeline comes from legal and restructuring channels rather than traditional Wall Street deal flow. Church's background in derivative structuring at Bank of America also informs the firm's use of options and derivatives to express downside views.

Church Capital is sector-agnostic and focuses on the catalyst, not the market-cap bracket. The firm has been active in large-cap merger arbitrage as well as small-cap and micro-cap restructurings. Illiquidity is acceptable when the legal or regulatory path to value realization is clearly defined. Public filings indicate past involvement in the Lehman Brothers creditor claims market and in energy-sector restructurings, spanning a broad range of capitalization sizes.

The firm avoids situations where value depends on multiple expansion, sector rotation, or broad market sentiment. Church does not employ leverage as a primary return driver, and the firm has publicly expressed reluctance to compete in crowded merger-arbitrage spreads where antitrust risk is not adequately priced. Church Capital does not run a multi-manager, multi-PM, or pod-shop structure and has no plans to adopt one.