New Star Asset Management this week announced plans to merge its poorly performing Japan and North American funds into New Star Pacific Growth and New Star American Portfolio respectively. Both funds have struggled over the last year with New Star Japan losing 3.46% mor
e than its Morningstar Japan Large Cap category. Meanwhile the North American fund had an even worse time, losing 15% more than its Morningstar US Large-Cap Blend category. New Star also recently merged its UK Special Situations fund into UK Alpha, after that fund also suffered underperformance. Whilst such mergers remove poor records from the public eye, in some cases they may also leave investors in offerings that give them exposure they don't want. For example, it's presumably likely that investors bought New Star Japan for exposure to Japanese equities. However, New Star Pacific Growth is an Asia ex-Japan fund and thus had no Japanese exposure as of its latest portfolio.
L&G Hires New Head of Credit
Legal & General Investment Management this week announced the appointment of Christophe Tamet as Head of Credit. He will report to L&G’s Head of Active Fixed Income Roger Bartley. Tamet joins from JP Morgan Chase Bank where he was Head of Credit in the Chief Investment Office. His experience covers corporate, asset backed securities, and structured credit markets.
Eclectica Launch Agriculture Futures Fund
Eclectica Asset Management has announced that it is to launch an Agricultural Futures Fund, based in Dublin. This fund will operate alongside Eclectica’s existing Agriculture fund which was launched in June 2007. The move comes on the back of the recent rise in agricultural commodities such as wheat, rice, and corn, which has brought substantial media and investor attention to area. The fund will be managed by Hugh Hendry and former Tottenham Hoptspur and Watford goalkeeper Espen Baardsen. During his time as a Premiership footballer Baardsen gained a degree in Social Sciences and Economics from the Open University, and has co-managed the macro element of The Eclectica Fund since 2006. Investors considering the offering may wish to note that agricultural commodity ETFs are available with TERs as low as 0.40% per annum.
Edinburgh Partners Wins Vanguard Mandate
Vanguard Group, one of the largest asset managers in the US, announced today that it had added Edinburgh Partners to its multimanager fund Vanguard International Value, a USD $9.3 billion offering available only to US investors. Vanguard cited Edinburgh Partners' concentrated, low turnover value approach as a reason for hiring the firm. Sandy Nairn and Christine Montgomery will run the mandate. Alliance Bernstein, Lazard Asset Management, and Hansberger Global Investors also run portions of the offering. The actively managed fund charges a TER of 0.43% per annum. Although the fee being paid to Edinburgh Partners has not yet been disclosed, Vanguard is notoriously parsimonious, and the advisory fee paid to the other parties amounted to a mere 0.16% of assets in fiscal 2007, plus a 0.1% performance fee.
