Henderson and Janus Capital will become the latest asset managers to turn their attention to absolute return multi-asset offerings when the two firms complete their merger later this month.
Greg Jones, managing director of distribution at Henderson, said the strategies would help the firm to become a global asset manager rather than one that is known for particular specialties such as European and US equities.
“We need to make sure we offer our clients options. So if they decide they want to take profits and change asset class or strategy, we have what they are looking for.”
Mr Jones said Henderson and Janus had both separately been investigating ways to move into the multi-asset space prior to their merger.
Henderson’s current multi-asset team, which is headed by Paul O’Connor, focuses mainly on multi-manager products, while Janus has no multi-asset offering for sale in Europe.
The move would pit the combined £250bn firm against the likes of Standard Life Investments, whose Gars product remains the standard bearer for absolute return despite recent performance struggles. In the near term, Henderson is to join in with another multi-asset trend by shifting James de Bunsen’s Multi-Manager Absolute Return vehicle away from a funds-of-funds approach in favour of greater use of direct investing.
The fund will be renamed Multi-Asset Absolute Return and charges will fall by 0.125 percentage points to reflect the change.
