Summer is a quiet time on the industry news front but that always changes when the holidays are over and this year has proved no exception, with a raft of fund launches and personnel changes being seen over the past week.
A lot has happened this week, including a number of people joining Woodford Investment Management and John Chatfeild-Roberts handing over his role as chief investment officer at Jupiter, so we have packaged the week’s biggest stories into this handy digest.
Woodford Investment Management hires six
Woodford Investment Management has hired three investment analysts and three members for its operations team.
Lucinda Crabtree, Richard Lockington and Harry Raikes have joined the group as analysts. Crabtree has previously worked at Panmure Gordon, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, Lockington joins from Duff & Phelps and Raikes was most recently at financial adviser Envestors.
On the operations side, Ruffer's Mohammad Sohail has joined as a dealing and trade operations specialist to assist head of trading Grant Wentzel. James Coats, former head of operations at MSK Capital Partners, and Dominic Eccles, lead operations analyst at BP's asset management arm, add further operational support.
Craig Newman, chief executive of Woodford Investment Management, said: “The new roles are a reflection of an evolving, ambitious business that is growing significantly.”
“The investment analyst roles will provide valuable resource for our fund managers, while the operational hires are further evidence of our commitment to building a fund management company with a cutting-edge infrastructure.”
Chatfeild-Roberts hands over Jupiter CIO role
Stephen Pearson has been promoted to chief investment officer (CIO) at Jupiter after John Chatfeild-Roberts decided to concentrate his efforts on running the Jupiter Merlin multi-manager portfolios.
Pearson, who is currently the firm’s head of investment and had previously been Chatfeild-Roberts’ deputy CIO, has 29 years of experience in the asset management industry. In his new role, he will ensure Jupiter’s fund managers have the resources they need to actively manage their portfolios.
Chatfeild-Roberts said: “Jupiter has grown substantially and the assets managed by the Jupiter Merlin team have doubled since I became CIO in 2010.”
“I have encouraged Stephen to take the lead on managing the investment team so it is a natural evolution for him to take on the role. As a result, I can devote my time to the job I enjoy the most: investing the Jupiter Merlin portfolios.”
John Monaghan, senior investment research analyst at Square Mile Investment Consulting & Research, is supportive of the move in light of the increasing competition being seen in the multi-asset space, where Jupiter’s Merlin range has a strong reputation.
Performance of Chatfeild-Roberts vs peer group composite over 10yrs
Source: FE Analytics
“With competition for viable solutions ever increasing, we view the decision of John Chatfeild-Roberts to pass on his CIO responsibilities to Stephen Pearson, thus allowing him to focus solely on the Merlin fund range, as a positive,” he said.
“Together with Algy Smith-Maxwell, Mr Chatfeild-Roberts, in our view, has built one of the strongest funds of funds propositions available in the UK market place and we continue to support the team's Income, Balanced and Growth funds with AAA ratings.”
Crux unveils new fund for Richard Pease
Crux Asset Management has launched its first ‘all new’ fund after Richard Pease joined the boutique by taking his £1.1bn Henderson European Special Situations fund with him.
The new fund – FP Crux European – will be managed by Pease and James Milne with support from analyst Roland Grender. It will primarily be a portfolio of large cap European stocks, especially those have had strong international brands.
It will make sure of the same process that is used on the FP CRUX European Special Situations fund, focusing on stocks that generate good cash flow, have high barriers to entry and strong pricing power, demonstrate proven track records and have relatively conservative valuations versus their peers.
Pease said: “We are very pleased to launch the first completely new fund for CRUX Asset Management.”
“James and I have worked together for many years, successfully managing similar mandates and with Roland’s support we look forward to bringing a compelling new strategy to investors. With the flexibility built into this fund we can offer our investors the most attractive European opportunities.”
Performance of fund vs sector and index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Ashmore co-founder launch new EM fund management firm
Jerome Booth, co-founder of Ashmore Group, has unveiled plans for a new specialist emerging market investment manager.
New Sparta Limited, Booth’s private office firm, will bring together economists and investment professionals with decades of experience of investing emerging market for his new New Sparta Asset Management (NSAM) business.
NSAM’s initial focus will be on renewable and conventional energy projects in Africa, although its overall strategy is not limited by sector or geography.
Booth will be chairman of the firm and will also chair its investment committee. Meanwhile, former IMF senior official Ousméne Mandeng has been named head of research and development as well as a member of the investment committee.
Booth said: “New Sparta Asset Management is about private markets in emerging markets. It responds to the growing need for specialist emerging market investment management that leverages sector knowledge in a private equity-style approach.”
“There is a huge amount of untapped opportunity in emerging markets, particularly with companies in the private, pre-IPO stage, but we believe that access to the best emerging market investments requires more than just capital. At NSAM, our strategy is not only to bring the funds, but also find areas where we can add value by using our expertise to help companies, and nations, grow rapidly but sustainably.”
HSBC to launch multi-asset fund range for IFA market
HSBC Global Asset Management plans to launch its HSBC Global Strategy range to the UK adviser market, offering a low-cost solution for multiple risk appetites.
The HSBC Global Strategy Cautious Portfolio, HSBC Global Strategy Balanced Portfolio and HSBC Global Strategy Dynamic Portfolio funds invest across a number of asset classes and global regions. Jane Davies will be the lead portfolio manager of the range, with Meike Bliebenicht working as senior product specialist.
The funds will focus on index-tracking funds to keep fees low, keeping their ongoing charges figures between 0.17 per cent and 0.20 per cent.
Phil Reid, head of wholesale UK at HSBC Global Asset Management, said: “Our recent independent market research has told us that over 90 per cent of IFAs look to multi-asset funds to meet their clients risk profile, and 74 per cent look to multi asset funds as a cost-efficient investment solution.”
“Our multi-asset fund range fund range uses an active asset allocation process to identify what we believe are each fund’s optimal exposures to equities, bonds and property securities, across both developed and emerging markets. This process is re-run at least every three months. Shorter term views can be reflected in the portfolios through tactical asset class weight adjustments.”
HSBC Global Strategy will launch on 16 October.