Newcastle Capital Management and its U.S. arm, NewQuant Capital Inc., are unifying under a single brand, NorthWater Capital Management Inc.

Toronto-based Newcastle and NewQuant of New York are both changing their names to eliminate confusion David Patterson, chief executive officer, tells HedgeWorld.com.

Together the firms manage US$2 billion in hedge funds, which are mainly invested in market neutral strategies. They have a total US$5.5 billion in assets under management.

NorthWater serves large institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and endowments in the United States and Canada.