Fund Times: 16 – 20 February
Gartmore poach Rensburg bond guru; M&G’s Cartwright to retire from property fund; Jennings to replace Morrell on Premier European Growth; Barings announce changes to Directional Global Bond Trust; and Complin takes 12 month sabbatical from JP Morgan
Gartmore this week announced the appointment of John Anderson to its Fixed Income team. Anderson joins as Head of Credit and will report to the group’s Chief Investment Officer Dominic Rossi who recently joined from Threadneedle. Anderson will arrive from Rensburg Fund Management in the summer where he has run the Rensburg Corporate Bond fund with great success for the last eight years. Since taking on the fund in October 2000 Anderson had returned 4.77% per annum an impressive 2.5% each year above his average Morningstar Sterling Corporate Bond category peer. The fund also ranks in the top decile over three and five years and Gartmore will hope Anderson continues to outperform when he takes over management of Gartmore Corporate Bond, Gartmore Institutional Corporate Bond, Gartmore High Yield Corporate Bond, and Gartmore SICAV Sterling Corporate Bond Funds.
Rensburg meanwhile note that they have immediately set plans in motion to recruit a replacement when Anderson leaves in the summer.
M&G’s Cartwright to retire from property fund
M&G Group announced this week that its property fund manager John Cartwright will retire after over 30 years at the group. As a result his Guernsey domiciled property fund will pass to Dermot Kierman on March 1, Cartwright will then officially retire from fund management on 31st March. Kierman is an experienced replacement with over 25 years experience. He has worked closely with Cartwright over the last year.
Jennings to replace Morrell on Premier European Growth
Mike Jennings will take the reins of Premier European Growth next month after Rupert Morrell steps down after four-years in charge. Jennings joined Premier Asset Management in March 2008 from Morley where he was head of global equities for nearly six years. Prior to that, he was director and senior fund manager at Sarasin for more than 12 years.
Jennings currently runs Premier Global DSR which launched in May 2008. Although it is early days, the fund has been struggling with losses of 28% from launch. However, his performance on board his previous mandates is more encouraging. During his seven-year tenure at Sarasin EquiSar Global Thematic Jennings delivered 12.1% per year on an annualised basis, while his average category rival returned 8.9%. He also managed to edge past the category norm during his stint at Morley on board Aviva Investors World Leaders (Jan 2002 – July 2007) with returns at 3.8%. At Premier European Growth, however, he will have to add enough value to overcome a high TER of 2.14%, far too much for an equity offering in our view.
Barings announce changes to Directional Global Bond Trust
Baring Asset Management this week announced that it will make three key changes to its Directional Global Bond Trust, effective from 10th March 2009 and subject to regulatory approval. The group plan to rename the fund Baring Absolute Return Global Bond Trust and introduce an Institutional Unit Share Class. Finally its IMA sector classification will change from Global Bond to Absolute Return. The reason for the change in sector comes after the group reviewed the fund’s investment objective in light of the introduction of the IMA Absolute Return sector in Q2 2008 and felt it sat more comfortably here.
Complin takes 12 month sabbatical from JP Morgan
JP Morgan Asset Management announced last week that Chris Complin, the group’s European equity group chief investment officer will be taking a 12 month sabbatical commencing in March. Complin has been at JP Morgan since 1998 and is also the firm’s global head of behavioural finance. In Complin’s absence Michael Barakos, who is managing director in the European equity group will head the European behavioural finance team. Barakos and Complin have worked closely together since the former joined the group in 1999.
