Tepper -- worth about $14.5 billion -- has become the founding investor for a private equity firm that plans to invest in growth companies, special situations and the media and sports sectors, according to regulatory filings and a person familiar with the matter.

The firm, Andalusian Private Capital, was co-founded by one of Tepper’s most trusted executives -- Jeffrey Kaplan, a former Merrill Lynch mergers head who helped his one-time boss make the record-setting $2.3 billion acquisition of the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers.

Andalusian, with about $800 million in assets, will invest on behalf of Tepper and more than 10 family offices who are banding together to do their own transactions rather than committing capital to private equity firms. Family offices have been adopting this approach because they believe big buyout firms are increasingly prioritizing asset growth over returns, according to Elizabeth Weymouth, the founder of Grafine Partners. […]