Barings has had to hand its flagship emerging markets fund to its fourth manager in as many years after recent hire Staffan Lindfeldt left the group, Investment Adviser can reveal.
The group hired Mr Lindfeldt from Stockholm-based Handelsbanken Asset Management in June 2013 as head of the emerging markets equities team but the manager has now returned to his former employer.
He had replaced Roberto Lampl, who had been head of emerging markets equities since February 2011, after James Syme and Paul Wimborne both left to join JO Hambro Capital Management.
But now Jean-Louis Scandella, who the group hired in May last year as its head of equities, has become co-manager on its flagship $424.9m (£280.8m) Global Emerging Markets fund. William Palmer and Isabelle Irish will also work on the group’s emerging markets funds.
Since February 2012, the fund’s assets have dropped from more than $1.3bn to its current size, according to data from FE Analytics.
Mr Scandella, who said he plans to be at the group for the long term, said “it is very bad that [the fund has] had so many managers”, but he has already begun to change the way the emerging markets team is run by revamping how staff are remunerated. One way staff are now financially rewarded is for identifying stocks that make it into the flagship fund.
