Kristof Bulkai, Patrick Cadell and Hugo Rogers, have been managing the F&C Directional Opportunities and the F&C Water and Agriculture funds.
According to Liontrust it will launch a Dublin-domiciled Global Strategic Equity Fund for the trio in May and a global water and agriculture fund later in the year.
The firm said the Global Strategic Equity Fund will have a significant weighting to emerging markets at launch and the investment process as a whole: “seeks to identify stocks, sectors and countries which are experiencing structural or fundamental change. Such change creates winners and losers and can lead to significant price movements.”
James Beddall, co-head of international sales at Liontrust, said by way of explanation for the hire: “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.”
Cadell joined F&C at the start of 2013 from Nevsky Capital where he was an investment analyst, while Bulkai and Rogers both joined Thames River Capital in 2008, which was then bought by F&C and then BMO, the firm said.
Prior to Thames River, Kristof held positions at Griffin Capital Management and Goldman Sachs, while Rogers was an analyst at Copenhagen Capital and Odey Asset Management.
Liontrust CEO, John Ions, added that the team will “provide key diversification for Liontrust through new funds and broadening our client base internationally.”
He added: “We have also started to broaden our distribution capability internationally and have already begun attracting inflows from continental Europe.”
Financials
The group also released its trading update for the year ending 31 March, 2015 reporting a 24% increase in assets under management to £4.5bn.
Over the period, the firm reported net inflows of £667m over the year, but said it saw net outflows in the final quarter of the year on the back of worries over the forthcoming UK election. Its UK retail business saw £83m in net outflows during the quarter.
