People Moves
Insparo Hires Former New Star Manager For Africa Fund

London-based Insparo Asset Management has appointed Jamie Allsopp – the well known former New Star manager – to run its $160 million Insparo Africa & Middle East Fund.
In addition to research and investment decisions Mr Allsopp will also be responsible for marketing the fund in the company’s target markets, Insparo said in a statement.
Mr Allsopp joins the company from New Star Asset Management, where he worked as equity analyst and later as portfolio manager for two of New Star’s high profile funds.
In 2007, Mr Allsopp launched the New Star Heart of Africa Fund, which invested in sub-Saharan equities. Dealings in the Heart of Africa fund were suspended in December 2008 when the fund became unable to meet redemption requests; increased redemptions had led to a growing concentration of increasingly illiquid stocks. The fund had deteriorated to £29 million ($42.6 million) when dealings were suspended, having previously stood at £86 million in August 2008.
In February, New Star announced that it would not re-open the fund as the liquidity problems in some of the sub-Saharan region’s markets and stocks had not improved. London-based alternatives manager Duet subsequently bought the fund in April.
In other recent hires, in October this year Insparo appointed Mahan Namin as assistant portfolio manager for its investment and research team. In August, the firm appointed James Gore from Grandhara Capital as finance and operations manager, who is now working alongside Jon Laidlow, the company’s chief of operations.