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Gartmore Poaches European Equities Veteran From GAM
Rachel Walsh
22 June 2009
Gartmore has appointed John Bennett, currently at London-hedge fund GAM, as senior manager of its European equities portfolio. Mr Bennett has spent 16 years managing continental and pan-European equities at GAM. Currently, he manages the Star Continental European Equity Fund and the Star European Equity Fund. Mr Bennett is expected to start at Gartmore in early 2010. Mr Bennett, who will report to Gartmore chief investment officer Dominic Ross, is also to develop a range of pan-European products for Gartmore. "He follows a blended investment process focused on large-cap stocks similar to the process Guillaume and I use. He has a wealth of experience and a long standing track record of success which will expand and diversify our European Equity capabilities," said fund manager Roger Guy. In April, the firm also recruited Dan Roberts from Aviva Investors to manage its £137 million ($202 million) UK Equity Income Fund. Mr Roberts will join Gartmore in mid-July. Gartmore provides investment management products and services to investors in the UK, Continental Europe, the US, Japan and Latin America, and as at 29 May 2009, the firm managed £17.8 billion in assets under management. Headquartered in London, Gartmore also has offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Madrid and Tokyo.
He leaves to manage the Gartmore European Selected Opportunities and Gartmore SICAV Continental European funds. The Gartmore funds' current managers, Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg, remain in control until Mr Bennett’s arrival, at which point they will concentrate on other alternative and institutional mandates. These include the Capella, Tucana, and Acamar hedge funds, two recently launched European absolute return mutual funds, the Gartmore European Investment Trust and several institutional mandates.
"Our European equity franchise has grown significantly in terms of clients and products. Mr Bennett's appointment enables us to satisfy both the performance and service demands of the current environment. With Roger and Guillaume focusing on alternative and institutional products and Mr Bennett concentrating on the long-only funds, we will have one of the strongest European Equity franchises in the market," said Gartmore chief executive John Meyer.
"John joins a list of six other significant recent investment hires, all of whom will accelerate our organic growth," said chief investment officer Dominic Rossi, referring to a raft of recent hires including Kam Tugnait as head of high yield. Mr Tugnait will join Gartmore later in the year, along with John Anderson, whose appointment as head of credit was announced in February.