Fund Times 14 - 18 December

Fidelity announces new Asia-Pacific head; Prudential appoints new Asian fund management head after Lindman leaves for Fidelity; Jupiter launches of two funds for Phillip Gibbs; Standard Life receives distribution status for SICAV funds in Spain; MSIM appoints new President; BlackRock reduces management charges on some funds; Morningstar qualitative ratings and reports issued this week

Nitya Pandalai Nayar 18 December, 2009 | 12:09PM
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Fidelity announces new Asia-Pacific head
Fidelity International has announced that Arne Lindman is to be the new president and chief executive of its Asia-Pacific business. Lindman will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Barry Batemen, vice-chairman of Fidelity International, several news media sources reported. Lindman has 20 years’ experience in investment management and previously held a similar role at Prudential’s Asian asset management division, and prior to that was head of Asian asset management at ABN AMRO.

Prudential appoints new Asian fund management head after Lindman leaves for Fidelity
Following the departure of Arne Lindman fo

r Fidelity, Prudential Corporation Asia has announced the appointment of Graham Mason as the new chief executive of fund management in Asia. Mason has 23 years’ asset management experience including 17 years at Prudential, and previously served as the chief executive officer and co-chief investment officer of Prudential Portfolio Managers South Africa, which he founded in 1994.

Jupiter launches of two funds for Phillip Gibbs
Jupiter Unit Trust Managers Ltd has launched two funds that will be run by Philip Gibbs – the Jupiter International Financials Fund and the Jupiter Absolute Return Fund. Gibbs, who is head of the financials team at Jupiter, also runs the Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund, which was ranked 1 in its Morningstar Sector Equity Financial Services category in 2008, generating a return of 7.32% due to an extremely defensive position with high amounts of cash during the sell off. The new Jupiter International Financials fund will be run in a similar style to the existing Financial Opportunities fund, but will allow short selling. The Absolute Return fund will be managed in a style similar to Gibbs’ hedge fund, also using full UCITs III powers and benchmarked against the 3 month LIBOR, which seems like far too easy a hurdle to us.

Standard Life receives distribution status for SICAV funds in Spain
Standard Life Investments announced that the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores has awarded 10 of its Luxembourg-domiciled funds public distribution status, opening them to Spanish investors. The funds that will be available to both institutional and retail investors are the European Equity Unconstrained fund, the European Smaller Companies fund, the Global Equity fund, the Global REIT Focus fund, the Euro Inflation Linked Bond fund, the European Corporate Bond fund, the Global Bond fund, the Global Inflation Linked Bond fund and the European High Yield Bond fund.

MSIM appoints new President
Morgan Stanley has announced the appointment of a new President, Gregory Fleming, of the Investment Management division. Fleming will also be responsible for merchant banking and global research, and will report to James P. Gorman, who will be CEO and President of Morgan Stanley in January 2010. Previously, Fleming was president and chief operating officer at Merrill Lynch, having started as an investment banker at the firm in 1992. His other experience includes time as a board member at BlackRock.

BlackRock reduces management charges on some funds
BlackRock has decided to lower the annual management charges on some funds in their BGF range, in a move that is good news for investors. The changes will be in effect from October 2009, and the funds to benefit from lowered TERs are BGF Emerging Europe fund, BGF European Opportunities Fund, BGF Japan Small & MidCap Opportunities fund, BGF World Financials funds, BGF World Healthscience fund and BGF World Technology fund. In addition, TERs on several funds such as BGF China have also been reduced in the year from September 2008 to August 2009. For more information on the fee reductions, click here

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 BGF Emerging Markets and BNP Paribas Euro Obligatie. Click here to see the full list.

The information contained within is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not intended nor should it be considered an invitation or inducement to buy or sell a security or securities noted within nor should it be viewed as a communication intended to persuade or incite you to buy or sell security or securities noted within. Any commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should not be considered a personalised recommendation. The information contained within should not be a person's sole basis for making an investment decision. Please contact your financial professional before making an investment decision.

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Nitya Pandalai Nayar  Nitya Pandalai Nayar is an analyst with Morningstar's U.K. research team.

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