Fund Times: 26 - 30 October
Investec Sterling Bond manager Harsha Patel leaves the firm; Jupiter and New Star financials managers Gibbs and de Blonay to work together; Blackrock announces launch of absolute return bond fund; SWIP European manager Rory Hammerson departs the group; Former Aviva bond head joins SWIP; GAM replaces John Bennett with Niall Gallagher.
Investec Sterling Bond manager Harsha Patel leaves the firm
Investec announced that co-manager of the Investec Sterling Bond fund, Harsha Patel, has left the firm to pursue other opportunities. In the interim her responsibilities will be assumed by co-manager John Stopford, who also heads Investec’s fixed income team. Investec’s fixed income line-up has seen significant changes recently including the departure of Investec High Yield co-manager Chris O’Hare, and several hires from hedge funds, including Jeff Burch as co-head of credit and Theo Stamos into the credit team. Investec changed the mandate of their Sterling Bond fund in 2006 to shift the focus away from the benchmark and more towards absolute returns. They now appear to be furthering this focus with the hire of ex-hedge fund staff and the launch of more unconstrained funds.
Jupiter and New Star financials managers Gibbs and de Blonay to work together
In what appears to be a coup for Jupiter, it was announced that Guy de Blonay has quit Henderson New Star to work with Phillip Gibbs on the Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund. Gibbs and de Blonay were previously rivals, running the two highest profile financials funds in the UK. Both managers have successful track records, although the Jupiter fund held up better in 2008 thanks in part to an extremely defensive position, with more than 50% of the portfolio in cash and bonds. The move will likely come as a blow to Henderson New Star. Meanwhile Jupiter continues its expansion path with the launch of two funds for Gibbs: Jupiter Absolute Return and Jupiter International Financials. The latter will be similar to the existing Financial Opportunities fund but will allow short-selling of stocks and indices. The Absolute Return fund will be benchmarked against three-month LIBOR and will be managed in a similar style to Gibbs’ existing hedge fund. Click here for an article summarising financials funds in the market and their performance through the credit crunch.
Blackrock announces launch of absolute return bond fund
BlackRock has announced the launch of the BlackRock Strategic Funds (BSF) Fixed
Income Strategies fund to be managed by Michael Krautzberger, who co-heads their European fixed income team and also manages the BGF Short Duration Bond and Euro Bond funds. The new fund will take long and short positions across the fixed income spectrum. This follows a trend of launches in the last few years of ‘strategic’ and ‘absolute return’ funds. While absolute return funds can play a role in a diversified portfolio, and some managers’ have displayed a talent in this area, the experience for a large proportion of investors to date has been poor. It remains to be seen how this fund will do over the long run.
SWIP European manager Rory Hammerson departs the group
Rory Hammerson is leaving SWIP although his new appointment is yet to be confirmed Hammerson has been with SWIP for more than 10 years, managing the SWIP Pan European Equity, Pan European Smaller Companies and Pan European SRI funds. The management of these passes to Kathleen Dewandeleer and Catie Wearmouth but Wearmouth already has fund responsibilities for SWIP European Select Growth, European Growth, and European funds. The departure may be a blow to SWIP as they prepare to take on a transfer of assets from Lloyds’ Clerical Medical group.
Former Aviva bond head joins SWIP
Roger Webb has joined SWIP as an investment director, working in their corporate bond team and reporting to head of credit Neil Murray. He will move from London to SWIP’s Edinburgh office for the role. The announcement follows his departure from Aviva in the summer of this year; Aviva also suffered the loss of Webb’s colleague Dominic White in September after eight years with the group.
GAM replaces John Bennett with Niall Gallagher
GAM has announced the appointment of former T. Rowe Price and BlackRock manager Niall Gallagher to run the GAM Star Continental European Equity and European Equity funds. He will replace John Bennett who is departing to Gartmore as mentioned here.
The move is an interesting one for Gallagher as it represents a shift back into retail funds management having been at the more institutionally-focused T. Rowe Price.
Morningstar qualitative ratings and reports issued this week
Morningstar issued new qualitative ratings and reports on a number of funds available to UK investors this week, including JPM Natural Resources and Fidelity Moneybuilder Income. Click here to see the full list.
