InvestmentsOct 13 2014

Old Mutual sacks Henderson in favour of specialists

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Old Mutual Global Investors has sacked Henderson from a mandate on François Zagamé’s £1.2bn Voyager Global Dynamic Equity fund in favour of two specialist fund groups.

Henderson’s Chris Palmer had been running an emerging markets ex Asia mandate since Mr Zagamé’s fund launched in April 2009, but now the multi-manager has opted to divide the mandate.

Part of the mandate will now be run by Jardim Botânico Investimentos, a Rio de Janeiro-based boutique that invests solely in Brazilian equities. The other part will be run by former BlackRock emerging markets manager Plamen Monovski from his emerging Europe company RenAsset Management.

Mr Zagamé’s fund is used across Old Mutual Global Investors’ £5bn multi-asset portfolios, which includes the Spectrum, Voyager and Generation fund ranges.

Mr Zagamé said the Henderson team had done a “very good job” and performed well.

He added that the management at Jardim, led by founder José Luiz Osório, was “very unlikely to be exposed to the heavyweights in Brazil like Vale and Petrobras” and instead focused on the small- and mid-cap areas of the market. It will run a £53m mandate.

In terms of RenAsset, Mr Zagamé said he had known of Mr Monovski back in his BlackRock days and that the manager does “not go to flavour-of-the-month stocks”. The company will run a £72m mandate.

“Our approach tends to favour local insight and expertise and we believe that we have now identified two outstanding local players with a very strong competitive advantage in their respective markets,” Mr Zagamé said.