Guinness Asset Management has hired former M&G analysts Sachin Oza and Stephen Williams as it expands it looks to launch an oil and gas exploration fund.
The pair will join the boutique’s three-strong team of Tim Guinness, Will Riley and Jonathan Waghorn.
Mr Oza joins after 13 years with M&G, where he was an equity research analyst focused on oil firms. Mr Williams has worked alongside him for the past six years.
The new fund will be managed by Mr Oza and Mr Williams and will invest in quoted stocks in emerging market exploration basins, with a target return of 20-25 per cent per annum over five years.
Guinness is yet to decide on the fund’s structure, but said it is considering a Dublin-based alternative investment fund vehicle.
Mr Oza said he left M&G in order to develop a fund investing in smaller, regional stocks.
He said: “I am really pleased that Guinness Asset Management are backing Stephen and me to make it happen. We would expect the portfolio to have limited short-term correlation to the oil price and the broader equities market due to the event-driven nature of the investments.”
