Stephen Snowden, the former co-head of fixed income at Kames Capital is joining Artemis, along with three of his former Kames team.
The resignation of Mr Snowden and his colleagues David Ennett, head of high yield, as well as fund managers Stephen Baines and Juan Valenzuela, was announced last week.
Both Kames and Artemis have an office in Edinburgh but Artemis does not have a substantial bond presence there.
FTAdviser understands that Artemis has contemplated for some time to launch an absolute return bond fund and Mr Snowden ran a similar strategy at Kames.
Mr Snowden’s exit comes just a year after his appointment as co-head of fixed income, replacing David Roberts and Phil Milburn.
Artemis confirmed this afternoon (November 3) it has hired Mr Snowden and his team.
Kames said it always runs a team-based approach on its bond desk, and it has meanwhile promoted several people to the rank of co-manager on funds run by those who have departed.
Adrian Hull, previously co-head of fixed income, will become sole head of the department after his departure.
Other changes will see Grace Le join existing co-manager Euan McNeil on the Kames Investment Grade Bond and Investment Grade Global Bond funds.
Rory Sandilands becomes co-manager with existing manager Colin Finlayson on the Kames Absolute Return Bond Fund, which Mr Snowden had previously jointly run, while Mr Finlayson also becomes co-manager on the Kames Strategic Bond and Strategic Global Bond funds with current co-manager Alex Pelteshki.
Jack Holmes and Mark Benbow will co-manage the Kames High Yield Bond and Short Dated High Yield Bond funds, while Mr Benbow also steps up to join Mr Holmes, a co-manager on the Kames High Yield Global Bond fund.
Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, described the departure of Mr Snowden and his colleagues as a "shock" and said at the time that in his view clients of the funds should consider looking elsewhere.
david.thorpe@ft.com
