A top-quartile corporate bond fund team shunned by Jupiter in its acquisition of Merian Global Investors is set to join Premier Miton.
Earlier this month, Jupiter revealed its own managers would take on the £439.25m Merian Corporate Bond fund, currently managed by Lloyd Harris and Simon Prior, and the $393.75m Merian Financial Contingent Capital fund, also currently managed by Harris along with Rob James.
This morning, Premier Miton announced it had recruited Lloyd Harris (pictured) and a number of his colleagues from Merian to join as head of fixed income and lead manager of the Premier Corporate Bond Monthly Income fund.
At Merian he also manages the £223m Merian Monthly Income Bond Fund as well as a number of segregated mandates.
See also: Jupiter faces ‘obvious’ fund mergers in Asian and European equities
Harris joined Merian in January 2012. Before this, he worked at Cutwater Asset Management as an asset-backed trader and financial credit analyst and Deutsche Bank as part of the structured capital markets team.
Simon Prior, co-manager of the Merian Corporate Bond and Merian Monthly Income Bond funds, is also moving across to Premier Miton. He will be co-manager of the Premier Corporate Bond Monthly Income fund.
Prior joined Merian as an investment grade credit analyst and previously worked at Old Mutual plc in both the finance and treasury teams.
In addition, Przemysław Pietraszek is joining Premier Miton as an assistant fund manager. He has been part of the Merian fixed income team since July 2018, assisting in driving investment grade, crossover and high yield fund performance by identifying trade opportunities through fundamental research and relative value analysis.
Pietraszek has eight years’ investment analysis experience.
Chun Lee, current manager of the Premier Corporate Bond Monthly Income fund and Premier UK Money Market fund, and Hoy Wan, co-manager of the Premier UK Money Market fund, will be part of the new fixed income team, reporting to Harris.
Premier Miton also intends to launch further funds equivalent to the fund range that Harris and his team have been managing successfully over recent years, it said.
Harris said: “I am excited to be joining Premier Miton to manage the Premier Corporate Bond Monthly Income fund and to lead its fixed income team. Joining alongside my previous team co-members, Simon Prior and Przemysław Pietraszek, means that, together with Chun Lee and Hoy Wan, who are already part of Premier Miton’s current fixed income team, we will have a very strong team on day one to manage and grow this fund.”
Premier Miton chief investment officer Neil Birrell said: “The hires of Lloyd Harris, Simon Prior and Przemysław Pietraszek are a key part of our strategy to strengthen and broaden our investment capabilities and to deliver great investment value in investment areas that are truly relevant for our clients, through genuine active management.”
