David Batchelder, the former chief strategist for...

David Batchelder, the former chief strategist for corporate raider T. Boone Pickens at Mesa Petroleum, who in June set up his own investment firm called Batchelder & Partners in La Jolla, has raised $15 million for a limited partnership.

Batchelder’s partnership, DHB Partners LP, will invest generally with larger partnerships to acquire companies. The acquisitions will not be restricted to hostile takeovers but pursue any deal that “will make good economic sense regardless of whether management might consider those activities as hostile or not.”

The partnership has already made its first investment, but Batchelder would not discuss it. Nor would he name the individuals who had invested the $15 million or whether one of them was Pickens. “The marketplace will find us in La Jolla to be a very active group,” Batchelder said.