Liontrust is expanding its alternative investment capability through the recruitment of three fund managers from BMO Global Asset Management.
At BMO, Kristof Bulkai, Patrick Cadell and Hugo Rogers managed the F&C Directional Opportunities and the F&C Water and Agriculture funds. BMO Financial Group acquired F&C Asset Management, including F&C Investments, in early 2014.
Bulkai and Rogers both joined Thames River Capital in 2008, which was subsequently acquired by F&C Asset Management and BMO. Bulkai held the role of portfolio manager and team head at BMO, and prior to this worked as a portfolio manager at Griffin Capital Management and an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Rogers held the role of fund manager at BMO, and previously worked as an analyst at Copenhagen Capital and at Odey Asset Management.
Cadell was also a fund manager at BMO, having joined F&C in 2013, and before this worked as an investment analyst at Nevsky Capital and a corporate finance analyst at JP Morgan Cazenove.
Following the new appointments, Liontrust will launch a Dublin-based Global Strategic Equity fund, with significant weighting to emerging markets, at the end of May and a global water and agriculture fund later in the year.
The ‘structural opportunities’ investment process that wlil be applied to the management of these funds seeks to identify stocks, sectors and countries which are experiencing structural or fundamental change. James Beddall, co-head of international sales at Liontrust, say: “We are seeing significant demand for alternative investments from clients, particularly internationally, which is partly being driven by the current valuations of equity and bond markets. Fund buyers are looking for managers who can perform well in all markets.
“With the addition of this team, we are building an attractive range of alternative funds at Liontrust and are seeking to diversify our teams and fund range further this year.”
Liontrust Asset Management manages £4.6 billion (€6.4 billion), as at April 20, 2015.
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