The fund was previously managed by Julian Thompson, head of Axa’s emerging markets team, a position he took up in December 2010. Thompson will continue to manage the offshore equivalent of the fund, the AXA WF Framlington Emerging Market Fund and will retain responsibility for the firm’s EM segregated mandates. And, according to a spokesperson for the
According to Mark Beveridge, global head of AXA Framlington, the promotions were made as a way of recognising and rewarding talent; Smith has been a member of the firm’s emerging markets team since February 2012, while Birchenough joined in April 2011.
The firm also announced the appointment of Alex Khosla, who joins the team from UBS Investment bank, where he was an emerging markets equities analyst.
Khosla will be responsible for covering the energy, beverages and tobacco sectors as well as monitoring macroeconomic issues in India, Chile, Peru and Colombia, the firm said, and brings the number of people in the emerging markets team to seven.
Over five years’s the Axa Framlington Emerging Markets Fund has returned 6% compared to the 10.73% produced by the sector over the same period.
