Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) announced a joint venture with New York-based Julius Baer Investment Management (JBIM) yesterday that will see an expansion of its fully-outsourced international equities portfolio.
It follows significant outflows in Credit Suisse's existing global equities fund manager, Capital International. The businesses have not had an exclusive arrangement.
CSAM executive vice chairman Keith Ince said the decision was not made in light of Capital's performance but to give clients access to a different style of manager with uncorrelated performance.
"It's no secret [Capital] had negative outflows but it was not performance-related," Ince said. "They don't achieve performance outcomes in the same way."
No money will be taken from Capital International's arrangement with Credit Suisse to seed fund flows with JBIM. JBIM offers Credit Suisse access to sought-after emerging European markets.
New retail and wholesale products will be developed and JBIM representatives are in Sydney this week to run focus groups with financial planners and meet clients, asset consultants and researchers.
Ince would not say how much is available to seed the new products.
A product manager has been hired to work out of Credit Suisse's Sydney office to build the joint venture.
JBIM manages around US$68 billion including over US$63 billion in international equity mandates.
Meanwhile, former Magellan Financial Group senior equities analyst Heath Behncke has been hired as an investment manager for Credit Suisse's re-built Australian equities team.
Based in Sydney, Behncke will report to Stephen Guibin and will cover the financial, infrastructure and utility sectors for the large companies portfolio.
