Fund Times: 14 - 17 April
Baring appoints new head of Japan equities; Gartmore adds to absolute return fund range; BlackRock strengthens fixed income squad; Morningstar qualitative ratings and reports issued this week and Is it third time lucky for Duffield?
Baring Asset Management has replaced Joji Maki with Jonathan Greenhill as head of its Japanese equity team and is moving the desk from Tokyo to London. Greenhill joins with 15 years’ experience in the region. He was previously at Occam Asset Management but left when large redemptions forced the firm to close the Japan desk. Prior to that, Greenhill was senior vice president at Lazard Asset Management and also worked at Royal & Sun Alliance. The firm’s line-up of Japanese funds has struggled in the last few years. Baring Japan Growth and Baring Japan, which Greenhill will take over, have significantly trailed most of their Morningstar category peers and index over the last 1, 3, 5 and 10 years. Over the last three years specifically, the two funds have shed 20.2% and 21.4% per year annualised, respectively, while their average category rival registered a loss of 15.7%. Greenhill’s appointment reflects Baring's commitment to revamp the team as they will also be appointing two other managers to work alongside him.
Gartmore adds to Absolute Return fund range
Gartmore is launching a UK Absolute Return fund on 30 April 2009 for Ben Wallace, who currently runs a large-cap hedge fund, Octanis. This is the second launch for the group in the absolute return space since October 2008 when it launched a European absolute return fund for Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg. Like any absolute return fund, this will take long and short positions in equities and derivatives in an attempt to achieve its objective of generating positive absolute returns over the long run across different market environments. But investors should note that whilst absolute returns are an admirable goal, actually achieving them through time is easier said than done. Absolute return funds have become especially popular recently as investors strive to combat market volatility by fleeing to the perceived safety of these vehicles. 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. That said, Gartmore is not new to this arena. It has built its hedge fund business over the last ten years and manages some £11billion in hedge fund assets.
BlackRock strengthens fixed income squad
BlackRock has this week announced new hires in its US-based credit and mortgage teams. Rick Rieder, former president and CEO of R3 Capital Partners and who had some $1.5billion in assets under management, will be joining BlackRock with this team. The team brings in expertise in trading, analysis and research. In his new role, Rieder will be managing director and head of the fixed income portfolio team. Also, Akiva Dickstein was hired from Merrill Lynch as managing director and head of the mortgage portfolio team and Randy Robertson joined as managing director and co-head of the securitized assets investment team. Robertson came from Wachovia Capital where he had worked for 11 years.
Is it third time lucky for Duffield?
John Duffield is understood to have hired a floor of New Star’s Knightsbridge offices from Henderson as headquarters for his new business, Hyde Park Asset Management. This marks Duffield’s third business venture following the launch of Jupiter Asset Management in 1985 and then New Star in 2001. Duffield sold a majority stake in Jupiter to Commerzbank in 1995 which netted £175m, but later fell out with management and sued them in 2000 for wrongful dismissal. He then set up New Star which was sold to Henderson for £115m in a deal that only closed last week and lost him roughly £950,000 on his 7% stake in the firm.
Morningstar qualitative ratings and reports issued this week
Morningstar issued new qualitative ratings and reports on a number of funds available to UK investors this week, including Schroder Japan Alpha Plus, Morgan Stanley European Equity Alpha, Schroder UK Smaller Companies and Schroder European Alpha Plus. Click here to see the full list.
