Janus Henderson, the global fund manager, has lost its star head of emerging markets and is about to lose the other four members of his team. One of the team, too, is on the board of the firm’s Australian-domiciled fund.
Glen Finegan, the emerging markets equities team head, left Janus Henderson on April 18. He is now on ‘gardening leave’ before setting up a new shop. He will be joined, at his new boutique, by the other four team members in October. It sounds like a very amicable divorce. But it puts Janus Henderson in quite a quandary.
According to ‘Investment Week’, a UK newsletter: “Stephen Dean [the Australian-domiciled fund director], Nicholas Cowley, Michael Cahoon and one more member of the team will continue to manage the Janus Henderson Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, as well as other mandates they are responsible for, until November 30, over which time the investment philosophy and process will remain the same.
“In a letter to advisor clients, seen by ‘Investment Week’, co-head of equities EMEA and Asia Pacific, Alex Crooke, said the firm is “actively pursuing various options for maintaining the global emerging markets capability, including recruiting new talent to the team.”
A Janus Henderson spokesperson said: “We remain fully committed to the emerging markets asset class…. We have over 350 investment professionals globally, a broad spectrum of active investment capabilities and a strong global client service team. We are optimistic about the opportunity to build a genuinely differentiated emerging markets investment capability.”
Janus Henderson is best known in Australia and New Zealand for its smart beta, fixed income and alternatives strategies. It has a strong link to Australia, given that AMP owned Henderson for a time. And Australian investors still make up a significant proportion of its shareholder base.
Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)