Fixed income strategies Aegon High Yield Bond and BlueBay Emerging Market Unconstrained Bond were among the funds to receive the rating, which recognises strategies the FundCalibre research team believes to be the best among their asset class peers.

FundCalibre research director Juliet Schooling Latter noted the £611m Aegon fund’s “excellent” track record in recent years, which has seen it placed among the top quartile of performers in the IA Sterling High Yield sector over one, three, and five years, according to FE Fundinfo data.

Elsewhere, Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust was also commended by Schooling Latter.

She said: “Launched in 2018, this trust invests in Indian companies of all sizes. The trust adopts a stock-picking approach to target scalable businesses with sustainable superior returns on capital. Aided by a huge bank of experienced research analysts, the trust has comfortably been the best performer in its sector since inception.

“We like the trust’s unique approach to stock selection and its ability to go deeper into both the mid and small-cap markets. A highly unconstrained vehicle, we also like its approach to ESG, specifically governance, which can be a critical issue in India.”

See also: Lindsell Train, Invesco and Schroders managers join 2024 FE Alpha Manager list

Fidelity Asian Smaller Companies fund manager Nitin Bajaj was commended by FundCalibre for his clear philosophy and wealth of experience investing in the region.

“This is a genuine stockpicking fund with an emphasis on buying good businesses at prices discounted by the market. The fund has a contrarian ‘value’ bias and high active share. Risk is considered in absolute terms rather than relative to any benchmark or peer group,” Schooling Latter noted.

Comgest Growth America was commended for its “clear process” and “experienced management team”. The $990m strategy has achieved top quartile returns in the IA North America sector over one, three and five years.

Meanwhile, the £257m Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust was also highlighted for its long term performance.

“The trust’s manager, Zehrid Osmani, has proven himself to be an excellent manager of high conviction strategies. The highly-driven research approach has proven to be extremely successful over the longer term across a range of portfolios and we see no reason why this cannot continue on this trust,” Schooling Latter said.

See also: Investors increasingly eyeing alternatives as volatility fears rise

Ninety One Diversified Income, which launched in 2012, is designed to either replace or complement bonds in a portfolio. The majority of the fund is held in fixed income assets, while it also incorporates strategic equity positions.

“We also like the team’s use of future options and swaps to hedge equity, duration and credit risk,” the FundCalibre research director added.

Four funds were also handed the ‘Elite Radar’ badge, which is awarded to strategies that are on the research team’s shortlist and could receive an Elite rating in the future.

The strategies receiving the rating were Artemis Leading Consumer Brands, GQG Partners US Equity, Man GLG Dynamic Income, and Redwheel Biodiversity.

This article was written for our sister title Portfolio Adviser

The multi-boutique investment firm hired Robert McKillop as chief executive for UK and Europe, based in London.

He joins from Aberdeen Standard Investments where he spent over a decade as global head of product and client solutions.

Maven Wealth

Independent Wealth Planners’ (IWP) Welsh regional office, Maven Wealth, has promoted Gareth Tregidon to chief executive.

He was previously interim chief executive and head of financial planning at the firm.

The appointment comes in tandem with Maven’s announcement that it has rebranded to Nugenis Financial Planning from 1 May 2022.

RBC Wealth Management

Head of wealth management for southeast Asia Michael Reed will retire in June after 22 years at the firm.

Current head of private banking for north Asia Nick Chan will take on a broader remit to lead RBC WM’s sales and relationship teams across Hong Kong and Singapore, less than six months after joining the business.

As part of the push, RBC also hired Johann Peck, Audwin Tay and Betty Wong as senior bankers to provide advice and wealth management solutions to Asian families.

Hampden & Co

Jonathan Peake has joined UK private bank Hampden & Co as chief financial officer.

He was previously at Standard bank International where he held a similar role for the last six years.

Financial Conduct Authority

The UK regulator has made three senior hires.

Mel Gunewardena will take on the role of senior adviser at the FCA. He is currently chief market intelligence officer at the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission based in Washington DC.

Graeme Reynolds will become director of competition. He is currently one of the regulator’s deputy chief economists.

Simon Walls has been named interim wholesale director. He has been head of wholesale markets since 2016 and has worked for the regulator since 2006.

Kingswood

The international wealth group recruited Christopher Calvocoressi as technology transformation lead.

He joins from Schroders Personal Wealth where he served as a programme manager.

Ninety One

Global investment manager Ninety One has made two senior hires.

Pat Sanderson will take on the role of head of business development for the UK while Leanne Barnham as head of UK marketing.

Sanderson was previously at RBC where he was responsible for sales, relationship management and marketing for the UK and Ireland; while Barnham was at Architas Multi-Manager where she served as global head of marketing.

Rathbones

The investment management group expanded its DFM distribution team.

Matt Honour joins as a DFM specialist and will be responsible for relationships in the west of England.

He used to work at Timeline as a business development manager.

Paul Russell has been named chief information officer at Canada Life.

He previously founded start-up Upside Saving where he also served as chief technology officer.

Edmond de Rothschild

Private bank and asset manager Edmond de Rothschild has made two senior hires to expand its presence in the Middle East.

Manuel Sturm becomes chief operating officer for the Middle East and Africa market, while Saman Habibian is market leader Middle East and Africa.

Sturm was most recently chief of staff for the Middle East and Africa region at Bank Pictet in Zurich, while Habibian was head of Middle East at the bank.

PraxisIFM

The independent financial services group has promoted Katja Daborn to managing director of its Hong Kong office.

She has been with the firm for nearly 15 years.

Ninety One

The global investment manager recruited Daisy Streatfield as sustainability director.

She will be responsible for implementing the firm’s net zero commitments across the business and within portfolios.

Streatfield was previously at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change where she served as programme director.

HanETF

The Europe-based white label Ucits ETF issuer has made three senior hires.

Vincent Chen joins as business development director, Torsten Dueing as head of ETC structuring, and Himanshi Rastogi as director of marketing.

Chen joins from Krane Fuds Advisors where he worked as executive director; Dueing was at Nomura where he was responsible for the development and product management of index-linked quantitative strategies; while Rastogi used to work for Aviva Investors as global lead for institutional marketing.

Brown Shipley

Mark Flynn will take on the role of managing director and head of Scotland at the private bank from June 2022.

He will join from Barclays Private Bank where he is head of private banking for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Rathbone Greenbank Investments

Rathbone Investment Management’s ESG arm has made three hires.

Christophe Borysiewicz and Jonathan Moon will become investment directors, while Stephanie Sotiriou will be an assistant investment manager.

Borysiewicz joined the firm in 2021 from Epworth Investment Management, while Moon was previously at Sanlam Private Office. Sotiriou joins from Tam Asset Management where she was responsible for managing ethical portfolios.

Kleinwort Hambros

The wealth firm has made three senior hires in its Gibraltar client relationship management team.

Joe Bautista and David Isted have taken on the roles of private bankers while Carlos Ibanez becomes head of fixed income.

They all join from J Safra Sarasin.

City of London Police

The City of London Police’s insurance fraud enforcement department has promoted Tom Hill to head of the unit.

He was previously detective chief inspector and has been with the force for over 15 years.

At the same time, Fund Calibre’s elite-rated multi-asset managers, revealed they are less keen on Chinese equities, emerging market debt (EMD) and infrastructure.

“With inflation rising, linkage and consistency is key and with bonds challenged to deliver, alternatives such as Home Reit can meet the need with solid rent generation over long-term leases,” said Richard Parfect, co-manager of the VT Momentum Diversified Income fund, explaining the case for specialist property.

Based on the expectation that inflation fears will remain elevated in the first half of this year, and maybe longer if a more virulent stain of Covid were to materialise, David Coombs, manager of the Rathbone Strategic Growth Portfolio, made the case for commodities.

“In order to mitigate to mitigate both inflation and geopolitical risk, we think an exposure to more economically-sensitive commodities makes sense, industrial metals, energy and agricultural,” he said.

In terms of finding assets that are genuinely uncorrelated to equities, Matt Stanesby, co-manager of the Close Managed Income fund, said having first invested in music royalties in 2000, the end added to its holding last year.

“This gives us access to an income stream from more than 150,000 songs, across all music genres, and with new areas like streaming or placement in films and commercials, potential for capital upside too,” he said. “One of the big benefits of this area is that it is genuinely uncorrelated to market movements,” he added.

Better ways to achieve return

Despite the theory of infrastructure being appealing, in that it provides an income driven return with low equity sensitivity, John Stopford, manager of the Ninety One Global Income Opportunities fund, is less convinced.

“Their performance during the big market drawdowns of the last 10 years has shown the asset class’ fragility, caused by concentrated holdings registers, reduced liquidity and underlying exposures with greater economic sensitivity as public-private partnerships have dried up,” he said.

“We think there are better ways to achieve the desired return profile.”

Having had concerns about Chinese equities for some time, the Jupiter Merlin Income fund meanwhile has reduced its exposure to the world’s second largest economy.

Amanda Sillars, co-manager of the Jupiter Merlin Income fund, said: “As their communist ideology has firmed, we now believe that the interests of minority investors in Chinese companies are well down the pecking order for the State and, by extension, companies which have to adhere to their rules

“Partners who prioritise transparency, clarity and shared goals are best sought elsewhere.”

Staying in emerging markets, Coombs said EMD forms part of Rathbones’ equity risk allocation.

He argued: “Following the recent sell-off in higher growth areas of the US equity market, we prefer to use our risk budget to take advantage of this volatility, which should provide superior returns to those we can see from EMD in a rising US interest rate environment.”

Director Franscesco Gaetano Caltagirone has resigned from Generali, the firm said in a statement.

He was also deputy vice-chairman, non-independent director and a member of several committees at the firm.

In a letter to the chairman, he referred to being “prevented from making his own critical contribution and from ensuring adequate control” within the board of directors, as the reasons for his departure.

Caltagirone had been part of the board since April 2007.

Brown Shipley

Calum Brewster has been promoted to chief executive of Brown Shipley, subject to regulatory approval.

He joined the private bank in February 2021 as managing director and head of private banking and client solutions.

Brewster will succeed Alan Mathewson, who served as chief executive since 2018.

Seccl

The platform technology provider has hired David Ferguson as chief executive, effective from 4 April 2022.

Ferguson was the founder and chief executive of Nucleus Financial Group until September 2021.

Seccl’s current co-chief executives Sam Handfield-Jones and Dave Harvey will continue in their roles until 4 April 2022.

After that, Harvey will focus on leading the firm’s technology and product direction, while Handfield-Jones will transition to an advisory role.

The Pension Superfund

The UK pension consolidating ‘superfund’ has named Michael Clark as chief executive.

He joins from Shell, where he worked as global head of pensions and was responsible for the governance and administration of the group’s pension arrangements.

Avellemy

The UK asset manager has promoted two senior people.

Steven Lloyd, who joined the firm at its inception in 2014 as investment director, will become managing director.

Graham Bentley, who was a non-executive director and chair of the board since 2020, will become the asset manager’s first chief investment officer.

Crestbridge

Martin Lambert has taken on the role of head of UK operations at the global provider of administration solutions, based in London.

He will also replace Paul Windsor as head of the London office, who will retire after six years as London managing director.

Lambert joins from Grant Thornton, where he worked as a partner.

Lazard Asset Management

The asset manager has appointed Nick Savastano as head of third-party distribution in the Middle East, based in Dubai.

He spent the last 14 years as a senior executive officer at Invesco Middle East and Africa.

Marlborough

The firm has brought in fund manager Nick Peters to help with the development of investment propositions.

He was previously at Fidelity International, where he worked as a multi-asset portfolio manager for nine years.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)

The Abu Dhabi Global Market has named chief executive Mark Nicolas Cutis has his role, effective from 28 December 2021.

He joined the international financial centre in June 2021.

Ninety One

Juliana Hansveden has become portfolio manager for emerging markets sustainable equity at the independent investment manager, based in London.

She previously worked at Nordea Asset Management, where she was responsible for managing the Emerging Stars Equity and Asian Stars Equity strategies.