Fund Times: 27 - 31 October
Dasher to Head Fixed-Income Desk at Schroders; Fund Trade Group Releases September 2008 Investment Fund Statistics; F&C Sees Drop in Assets and Shares to Be Distributed to FriendsProv Shareholders; Insight Appoints New Head of Multi-Asset Group; Jupiter Adds Non-Executive Director.
Dasher to Head Fixed-Income Desk at Schroders
Schroders has appointed Karl Dasher as Head of Fixed Income. Dasher replaces Robert Michelle, who left the firm with two other members of the fixed-income team to join JPM. The new head joined Schroder from SEI Investments in January 2008 and was appointed Head of Global Product. He was an SEI veteran, he began his career there in 1994 and worked for 10 years across South Africa and Continental Europe before becoming Chief Investment Officer in 2004. He will be heading a team of over 100 investment professionals, spanning nine international locations. The firm’s fixed income line-up for UK investors has been strong so far this year as 63% of offerings have bested their typical peers in the respective Morningstar categories.
Fund Trade Group Releases September 2008 Investment Fund Statistics
UK domiciled funds under management have dropped by 11% between August and September 2008 to total £380,014 billion according to the latest figures from the IMA, the trade association that promotes the business interests of UK asset managers. The same pattern held true for overseas funds which saw a similar 10% fall in value to £16.7 billion over the same period. Net sales of UK domiciled equity funds fell by £470 million, compared with a £796 million drop for fixed-income offerings in September 2008. Within equities, the IMA UK All Companies sector witnessed the highest share of gross sales, but also has the highest net outflows, at £347 million. The best selling sector in September was the IMA UK Equity Income sector with £174.3mn in net retail inflows. The IMA UK Absolute Return sector was the second best selling sector overall for UK domiciled funds, with net inflows at £55 million. These statistics reflect investors’ risk aversion as they flee to the perceived safety of fixed-income investments and absolute-return vehicles. Absolute return funds have become especially popular recently as investors try to combat market volatility. Nevertheless, this trend is worrying as few of these funds have long enough track records, and the structure of their portfolios makes their risks hard to quantify. You can read more on IMA flow data here.
F&C Sees Drop in Assets; Shares to Be Distributed to FriendsProv Shareholders
F&C reported its third quarter results Friday. The firm saw net outflows in all sales channels, except for a £3.2 billion inflow from the acquisition of REIT. The group's insurance assets saw the biggest net outflow at £1.55 billion in the quarter, institutional investors pulled a further net £737 million, and its UK retail funds saw a net £69 million walk out the door. In all, excluding the inflow from REIT, the firm saw a net outflow of £2.57 billion. In the first nine months of 2008, F&C saw net outflows of £6.56 billion, the vast bulk of which came from the insurance and institutional channels.
F&C has struggled with uncertainty around its future: Majority owner Friends Provident had been trying to sell it, but a buyer has yet to materialise. In the midst of this, the group has suffered from significant fund manager turnover and the elimination of its career analyst staff. This has lead Morningstar analysts be negative on many F&C funds for the time being as our experience suggests that sales of asset managers often have negative consequences for fund owners. In the latest development, Friends Provident's board announced today that it plans to distribute its 52% stake in F&C to its shareholders by mid 2009. That may help bring some closure to the situation, but we'll follow developments closely in the coming months.
Insight Appoints New Head of Multi-Asset Group
Insight Investments has appointed Mike Pinggera to head the firm’s multi-asset group. Pingerra was previously at Credit Suisse as Head of Multi-Asset Class Solutions where he recently devised a multi-asset investment strategy for institutional and private clients. The group will remain under the management of Reza Vishkai, who is Head of Alternatives at Insight. Pingerra replaces Patrick Armstrong and Dr. Ana Cukic Armstrong who were head of investment selection and head of portfolio strategy & construction, respectively. The duo had managed Insight WealthBuilder Balanced since April 2004 and delivered strong returns during their tenure. The fund returned 6.3% per year in annualised returns – that is an outperformance of 2 percentage points per year over its average peer in the Morningstar Sterling Aggressive Balanced category. It was, however, also more volatile than its peers.
Jupiter Adds Non-Executive Director
Jupiter Investment Management has appointed Matteo Dante Perruccio as Non-Executive Director in an effort to further expand its global presence. The firm has been expanding its business in the last two years having launched Luxembourg-domiciled SICAVs and secured distribution agreements in Asia. Matteo boasts 22 years of experience in the financial services industry globally and was most recently appointed Chief Executive at Hermes Funds of Hedge Funds. He was also co-Chief Executive at Olympia Capital Management in Paris and CEO of Pioneer Investment Management SGR in Milan. He also spent eight years at American Express Bank where his roles included Executive Director, Head of Personal Financial Services Europe, and Country Head of Financial Institutions and Private Banking in Milan.
