Gabelli Asset Management, the US event-driven investment specialist, is taking over Grove Investment Advisors, an energy hedge fund firm, and hiring its founder Iain Smith.

Smith, president and founder of Grove, has spent much of his career specialising in the oil, gas and power sectors, most recently managing a long/short hedge fund. Smith actually started his energy investment career at Gabelli & Company after moving to the US from the UK in 1994. He will join Gabelli Asset Management on November 1.