Among the various fund launches and manager moves taking place in the funds industry this week are several key resignations and the emergence of new horizons for others.
Personnel Movers and Shakers
Jason Britton has resigned as CIO of T. Bailey. After 12 years with the firm and numerous achievements he’s “ready for a break” from the industry. Britton managed the T. Bailey Growth and Growth LITE funds, as well as being alternative fund manager of the Dynamic Cautious Managed and Defensive Cautious Managed funds.
Following news of his departure, OBSR analysts have suspended their A rating of the T. Bailey Growth fund. Former Chief Investment Officer, Richard Martin, who had been a strategic adviser to T. Bailey and who has previously been involved in the day-to-day management of the fund, will become a senior fund manager working with fund manager Elliot Farley on the Growth fund. Our analysts will meet with the new management team at the earliest opportunity to review the rating.
DWS Investments’ Thomas Gerhardt has resigned from his position as head of emerging markets and manager of the DWS Invest Top 50 Asia fund. Following the news, Morningstar’s Superior qualitative rating has been placed under review and OBSR, a Morningstar company, has removed its A rating from the Global Fund Ratings Service. Going forward, the DWS emerging markets team will be managed by Andreas Römer, who previously managed the emerging markets debt group.
Andreas Wendelken, manager of the DWS Invest Emerging Markets Top Dividend Plus and DWS Invest Japanese Equities funds is to take over the reins from Gerhardt as manager of the DWS Invest Top 50 Asia fund with immediate effect. Our analysts will meet with the team in the coming months to discuss plans for the fund and will update their ratings accordingly.
David Varley has resigned from Royal London Asset Management to refocus his management skills on students rather than assets: Varley is to leave the industry and retrain as a teacher. As a result, our analysts we have taken the decision to withdraw the Royal London Japan Growth fund’s A rating from the OBSR Fund Ratings Service. Jonathan McClure, who previously managed the fund and has 15 years experience managing Japanese mandates, will assume responsibility for the fund until a suitable replacement has been identified.
Aberdeen Asset Management has hired Andrew McCaffery from BlueCrest, which last week saw its 25% stakeholder Man Group sell up, as head of institutional hedge funds. McCaffery will join Graham Duce and Aidan Kearney on the senior management team of the hedge fund and long only multi-manager business. McCaffery was formerly Head of Absolute Return at Aberdeen AM before leaving to join BlueCrest in 2008. “[Caffery’s] return will strengthen further our fund of hedge funds team as we look to build the business,” commented Anne Richards, CIO of Aberdeen AM.
Former Gartmore manager Guillaume Rambourg is to return to asset management after the FSA this week dropped its investigation into his activities. Rambourg left Gartmore in July of last year, having first returned to the European large-cap team after first being suspended in March pending an internal investigation into trading activities that allegedly breached company policy. Now that the FSA’s own investigation has been thrown out, Rambourg said in a statement that he is “pleased” and looking forward to “embarking on the next chapter of my career in fund management.” He said he will be considering a number of potential plans.
Fund Movers and Shakers
Schroder is to merge its Schroder Pacific and Schroder Asian Alpha Plus funds, pending unit holder approval at a meeting to be held on April 28. Matthew Dobbs, manager of the Schroder Asian Alpha Plus, will take the helm of the new merged fund under the same name, while Manish Bhatia, manager of the Schroder Pacific fund, will focus on his other Asian portfolios. Unit holders in Dobbs’ Pacific fund will also have the option to switch into another Schroder unit trust or exit the fund when the merger become effective on May 13.
Schroder last week merged its Schroder European fund with Schroder Institutional European fund and renamed the merged vehicle the Schroder European fund. More details here.
GAM has launched GAM Star Trading, after a long wait for the UCITS III absolute return funds universe to grow to a large enough size to warrant a fund of funds approach. The new fund, a strategic equivalent to GAM’s offshore fund of hedge funds offering, will charge an annual management fee of 1.6% but will not charge an additional performance fee, though it will honour any performance fees charged by the underlying funds including GAM’s own funds. GAM Star Trading is aimed at retail investors but an institutional class may be launched in the future.
Legal & General Investments has launched the L&G UK Equity fund. The retail fund will be lead managed by Richard Black, who will allocate assets to 30-40 stocks, and will be benchmarked against the FTSE 100 index, with a call overlay system. The fund will target a 10% yield premium relative to the benchmark net of fees. Distributions will be paid quarterly.
Morgan Stanley is to launch another FTSE 100 Bonus Fund, with an upfront maximum annual management charge of 0.5%. The fund will be a six-year auto-callable strategy in a UCITS III structure and will target returns of between 7.5% and 8.5% per annum. The fund is aimed at investors seeking a fixed capital return based on a neutral to slightly positive view of the FTSE 100 index. The Dublin-domiciled fund will be launch on May 4.
