Chief investment officer Michiel Timmerman and bond fund star Chris Bowie have become the latest high-profile employees to leave Ignis Asset Management.
The pair have joined Ignis’s chief executive Chris Samuel and head of global distribution Claude Chene in heading for the exit following the group’s acquisition by Edinburgh-based investment giant Standard Life Investments.
It is also understood that credit analysts Rosalie Pinkney and Nadia El Alaoui have left the firm. Joanna Howley, a product specialist for liability-driven investment and fixed income, also left in mid-June.
The departures come ahead of a major redundancy process for Standard Life. The company has only 130 jobs available, meaning two thirds of Ignis’s 360 staff are facing the axe.
More than half of Ignis’s current staff are based in Glasgow, so those who wish to join Standard Life will have to travel to its Edinburgh office, although it is also understood that many of the 130 available roles are based in London or elsewhere.
Mr Timmerman has left Ignis after four years at the firm as managing director and chief investment officer. He previously worked on RBS Asset Management’s fund of hedge fund, private equity and long-only multi-manager businesses.
He formerly founded Coutts’ fund of hedge fund business.
Mr Bowie, head of credit portfolio management, joined Ignis in 2004. He had been a co-manager on the £248m Corporate Bond fund since December 2009.
The fund has delivered a top-quartile return of 42.5 per cent during Mr Bowie’s tenure, strongly outperforming the IMA Sterling Corporate Bond sector average of 32 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics.
“Following discussions about the future structure of the business and available roles, a small number of people have left the business,” a Standard Life Investments spokesperson said.
“The vast majority of Ignis people will remain in post on July 11 2014 and there will be no immediate changes to the products and services provided by Ignis.
“It would be inappropriate to comment on individuals at this point in time. Standard Life Investments currently has 130 vacancies, and we would expect more vacancies [to] arise in the future.”
Several non-executive directors are also no longer linked to the Ignis business. David Woods ceased being a non-executive director on the day the Standard Life deal completed. However, he still has a non-executive role at Ignis’s former parent company Phoenix, among others.
As of July 1, David Watts no longer has a non-executive role at Ignis, nor does Eric Stobart. However, the latter has a non-executive role at Capita Managing Agency.
Ignis Asset Management was rebranded from Resolution Asset Management in November 2008 following the group’s takeover by Pearl. Large amounts of the group’s assets are internal life money.
In 2012, Ignis announced that it was set to sever its ties with process-driven fund boutique Cartesian, marking the official end of the group’s strategy of offering ‘joint ventures’ to retail investors.
The move followed similar decisions taken with former joint ventures, emerging market boutique Hexam and European equity group Argonaut.
