We provide an environment with risk controls and make sure clients' objectives are addressed

Despite promoting himself as a geek, David Jacob, chief investment officer of listed assets and head of fixed income for Henderson Global Investors, is actually far from it.

As a self-confessed Sci-Fi fanatic, this genre of fiction is often thought to involve speculations on future science or technology. In announcing his love for all things to infinity and beyond, speculation is anything but new to Mr Jacob.

The high-profile Henderson acquisition of New Star is one that has raised many eyebrows since troubled asset manager New Star was sucked into a black hole last year.

The significant dip in assets under management and citing £260m debt, resulted in New Star’s corporate restructuring and official takeover by Henderson on April 9.

But to set the record straight, the 45-year-old states that the alliance has also been a positive outcome for the asset management giant Henderson, who cited £43.4bn assets under management noted in March this year.

Mr Jacob said: “For the business as a whole, the most attractive thing about the New Star acquisition from a Henderson point of view is it really jumps us up in terms of presence in the UK retail market.

“We have been here a long time, and this gives us the chance to come up the ranks pretty significantly. This is a core market, we are here to stay and take it very seriously.”

The acquisition resulted in around 130 New Star employees moving across on short-term contracts, but only 80 staff remained permanently on the Henderson books. This included 15 asset managers under Mr Jacob’s department.

He said: “From New Star, we took on some great talent, but could not take on everybody as we already have a strong team here. It was an opportunity to complement a number of areas.”

However, Mr Jacob does not play down the cloak-and-dagger environment during the merger, but insisted: “I do not want to say it was easy during the transition, as our operations, IT, support and back office have done a tremendous job.

“But in terms of being able to handle the continuity of investment management for the clients, it has been very straightforward.

“From a personal level, it was an increasingly difficult time for New Star, in not knowing if they would have jobs at all, to then our announcement, and then realising there would be some jobs available."

He said: “The Thursday before Easter, the fund managers went home from managing money at New Star offices, to come back on the Tuesday after Easter, to managing portfolios on our systems in our offices. This ensured our continuity to our clients and make sure we could deliver to them.

“This would have been different if the two firms had been from vastly different cultures. If one of the firms had a dictatorial approach, then this would have been difficult.”