Fraenkel-Thonet to Leave Fidelity
It was announced this week that Fidelity veteran and European equity manager, Thomas Fraenkel-Thonet, will leave the firm at the end of September 2010. Fraenkel-Thonet will continue to manage FF European Larger Companies until then, however, from 1 October the fund will be handed over to Matt Siddle. Fraenkel-Thonet was one of the most experienced and longest serving managers in the European equities team, so his departure is undoubtedly a loss to the firm. Siddle has been at Fidelity since the start of his career in 1999. He joined the firm as a pan-European equity analyst and became Director of Research after six years. Siddle started running assets single-handedly only recently in early 2008, when he managed UK equity offerings FF United Kingdom, Fidelity Growth & Income and the equity portion of Fidelity MoneyBuilder Balanced. We see no reason for investors to panic at this stage and will update Morningstar’s report on FF European Larger Companies once we have met with Siddle and formed a better understanding of his plans for the fund.
HSBC Plans Global Inflation-Linked Bond Fund Launch
HSBC has announced its plans to launch a Lux-based global inflation-linked bond offering which will be run by its quantitative fixed income team. The fund will have a minimum investment of $5,000 and an annual management fee of 0.7%. It will be available in dollar, euro and sterling denominated share classes. The team aims to invest in OECD sovereign debt where monetary policies are (arguably) lax and public deficits are high.
Insight Adds Multi-Asset Specialist
Insight Investments has appointed Shantanu Tandon within its multi-asset group. Tandon will replace James de Bunsen, who left the firm to Armstrong Investment Managers to join his former insight colleagues Patrick and Ana Armstrong. Tandon, who previously held research and fund management roles at Architas Multi-Manager, will join Insight in October 2010. He will work alongside Mike Pinggera, who heads the multi-asset group, and manager Steve Waddington on Insight’s Diversified Target Return, Diversified High Income, Diversified Dynamic Return and WealthBuilder Balanced funds.
Rob Jones Quits Threadneedle
European equity manager Rob Jones has left Threadneedle for Union Bancaire Privée's (UBP), where he will head-up the Swiss firm’s European equities team. Jones had been with Threadneedle for 14 years, where he ran a number of UK and European mandates. Most recently, Jones was in charge of Threadneedle Pan European, which he has driven to excellent results since taking the helm in 2006. The fund has now been handed to Dan Ison, who heads the pan-European equities desk at Threadneedle.
Cavendish Bolsters UK Equity Team
Cavendish Asset Management has hired Neil Mitchell from Adam and Company to assist UK equity manager Paul Mumford. Mitchell co-managed UK small- and mid-cap offerings at Adam and Company and will now be extending his expertise to issues higher up the market cap ladder. The firm also appointed Deepti Goyal as a senior analyst. Goyal came from Redburn Partners, where she covered various IT industries.
Morningstar Qualitative Ratings and Reports Issued This Week
Morningstar issued new and updated qualitative ratings and reports on a number of funds available to UK investors this week, including BGF World Healthscience, BGF Latin American and Invesco Euro Corporate Bond. Click here to see the full list.
