Fund Times: October 11 - 15

Plackett relinquishes role at BlackRock UK Smaller Companies, Baillie Gifford appoints new CIO, Aegon and BlackRock expand their fixed income capabilities, and more.

Chetan Modi 15 October, 2010 | 3:42PM
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Plackett Relinquishes Role at BlackRock UK Smaller Companies
Richard Plackett has handed responsibility of the BlackRock UK Smaller Companies fund to his co-manager Ralph Cox. Plackett has been working alongside Cox on the fund since August 2007 but they have also worked together on the on the BlackRock UK Emerging Companies hedge fund since it was launched in 2004; the duo will continue to co-manage the hedge fund. Plackett will remain as head of the BlackRock UK Smaller Companies team and is in sole charge of the BlackRock UK Special Situations fund.

Baillie Gifford Appoints New CIO
Baillie Gifford & Co has appointed Gerald Smith as chief investment officer with effect from April 2011. The current CIO and partner of the firm – James Anderson – will continue working as head of the Long Term Global Growth team, chairman of the EAFE Alpha portfolio construction group, the manager of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC and a member of the Investment Policy Committee. Gerald Smith has been at Baillie Gifford since 1987 and became a partner in 1998; he is currently the deputy CIO and chairman of the Emerging Markets Investment Policy Committee. In another change at the firm, Tom Coutts will become the head of the European equity team from April 2011 following Peter Hollis' decision to leave in April 2011 which was announced earlier this year.

Aegon Adds to its Fixed Income Capability
Daniel Uhlemann has been hired to Aegon Asset Management’s fixed interest team and will report to David Roberts, head of portfolio construction. Uhlemann joins the firm as a quantitative analyst and previously worked as a senior analyst within the corporate modelling team at Royal Bank of Scotland; he was also an analyst at Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS.

BlackRock Also Bolsters its Fixed Income Team
BlackRock has hired Ian Winship as a senior portfolio manager within its sterling fundamental fixed income team. He previously worked at Brevan Howard as head of absolute return products and Aberdeen Asset Management as head of global rates. Winship will report to Paul Shuttleworth, head of sterling fixed income.

Simon Bailey Steps Down from M&G Smaller Companies
Simon Bailey has relinquished his role as manager of the M&G Smaller Companies fund after almost a decade at the helm. He took charge at the beginning of 2001 and will hand responsibility of the fund to Louise Nash from the beginning of November 2010; Nash left Cazenove in July 2008 and has worked alongside Bailey since she joined M&G.

GLG Launches Macro Fund
GLG Partners has decided to launch a UCITS III version of its multi-asset global macro strategy. The Dublin-domiciled Atlas Macro Alternative fund will be managed by Driss Ben-Brahim and Jamil Baz, who is the chief investment strategist at GLG. The duo will manage the fund using a similar strategy to the one applied the GLG Atlas Macro hedge fund.

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Chetan Modi  is a fund analyst at Morningstar OBSR.

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