Personnel Movers and Shakers
Schroders this week announced the departure of fixed income fund manager Jamie Stuttard after eight years with the firm. The management of his funds will be passed to fixed income CIO Philippe Lespinard and head of US fixed income Wes Sparks.
Following the news, analysts at OBSR, a Morningstar company, have removed the Schroder ISF Global Corporate Bond fund from their rating service. The fund will now be managed by Wesley Sparks, who was formerly a co-manager on this fund. Whilst our analysts appreciate a high degree of continuity of people and process involved in the management of this fund, they acknowledge the importance of Mr Stuttard’s stewardship as lead manager and have therefore chosen to remove the fund’s Rating while they assess the changed circumstances.
In addition to the Global Corporate Bond fund, Sparks is also managing the Schroder ISF Global Credit Duration Hedged fund, which he previously co-managed with Stuttard. Meanwhile, Lespinard is taking over the Schroder ISF Euro Bond fund, Euro Short Term Bond fund, Sterling Broad Market fund, and Institutional Sterling Broad Market fund.
Cazenove’s James Tomlins has joined M&G’s fixed income team. Tomlins, deputy manager of the Cazenove Strategic Bond fund, is to join Stefan Isaacs and Richard Woolnough at M&G on June 20 after five years with Cazenove.
Jim Leaviss, head of M&G retail fixed interest, said he was delighted to welcome Tomlins, who he said “brings an extensive experience of investment in European credit, particularly in the high yield market.”
Fund Movers and Shakers
Schroders has today merged its Schroder European fund with Schroder Institutional European fund and renamed the merged vehicle the Schroder European fund. The newly-merged fund is managed by Martin Skanberg and Rory Bateman, who were the original managers of Schroder Institutional European fund. Skanberg also manages the Schroder ISF EURO Equity fund and Bateman also manages the Schroder ISF European Large Cap and Schroder ISF European Equity Focus funds. They will be supported by Schroders’ European Equity Team, which had £6.9 billion under management at the end of 2010.
Schroders said the merger gives retail investors access to the excess returns previously generated for institutional clients only. The objective of the newly-merged fund will stay the same: to achieve capital growth by investing predominately in large cap European equities.
BlackRock will launch three new equity income funds at the end of the month. The Global Income fund will be managed by Stuart Reeve and Richard Turnill and targets a yield 1.5 times higher than the MSCI All Countries World index’s annual dividend; the Continental European Income fund will be managed by Alice Gaskell and Andreas Zoellinger and targets an average yield of at least 110% of the FTSE World Europe ex UK index average market yield; the World Resources Income fund will be managed by Richard Davis, Joshua Freedman and Tom Holl and targets a yield higher than 1.5 times that of the S&P Natural Resources index. All three come at the cost of a 1.5% annual management charge and 5% initial charge.
Castlestone Management has launched the Aliquot Gold and Precious Metals Equities fund, which will invest in up to eight precious metal equity funds and is designed to accompany existing real asset holdings within a portfolio.
The fund aims to limit single manager risk and its holdings are diversified across regions, small- to large-cap companies and investment styles. It is actively managed by Castlestone’s investment committee, headed by CEO Angus Murray, and will be benchmarked against the FTSE Gold Mines Index. In addition to equities and physical metals, the fund can also invest in unit trusts, derivatives, swaps, forwards and ETFs, as well as in physical gold bullion to help hedge against major macroeconomic and geopolitical events.
Minimum investment for intermediary share classes is $10,000; GBP- and EUR- denominated share classes may open in the near future.
Thames River will in May launch a high yield bond fund with an annual management charge of 1.5%. The UCITS III absolute return fund will be overseen by the asset manager’s global credit team, headed up by Stephen Drew and Mehrdad Noorani.
The fund will have retail and institutional share classes denominated in GBP, EUR and USD, and is expected to invest 70% in developed markets and the reminder in emerging markets, with around 80% of assets in high yield bonds and 20% allocated to investment grade. Overall credit quality will be in the B-/BBB region. The fund targets a total return of 10% with a target volatility of 10%-12%.
Skandia Investment Group (SIG) is proposing to overhaul its equity and bond income funds and as such is hosting an EGM next week to register shareholder votes. Among the proposals are plans to change the Equity Income fund of funds into a single manager global fund, renamed the Skandia Global Equity Income fund and run by O’Shaughnessy Asset Management. SIG says these changes could result in lower charges. In addition, pending shareholder approval, the Bond Income product is set to be renamed to Strategic Bond fund to better reflect its investment strategy, alongside which the fund’s annual management charge will fall to 0.8% from 1.25%.
Corporate Movers and Shakers
Following shareholder approval of Henderson's Gartmore acquisition, it's now on the look on for the next add-on. Both Gartmore and Henderson Global Investors shareholders this week voted overwhelmingly in favour of the latter’s acquisition of the former. On Monday, Gartmore shareholders voted 99% in favour of the acquisition, which was first announced in January. The following day, 99.97% of Henderson shareholders also voted for the takeover.
In a separate statement, Henderson chairman Rupert Pennant-Rea said the firm’s main strategy focus remains on “profitable organic growth” but that it is also on the look out for acquisition opportunities to fill the gaps in its product range or to improve distribution.
