Lomnitzer has joined from Merchant Capital, where he founded and managed the Merchant Global Resources Fund and will be based at First State’s London office.
Previously Lomnitzer was partner and fund manager at NewSmith Capital and ORN Capital where he managed the Global Long/Short Resources and Energy Funds.
He was also a fund manager and buy-side equity analyst at Deutsche Asset Management, where he worked in the global energy team.
Joanne Warner, head of global resources, said the appointment was a valuable addition to the team and would enable greater depth and breadth of coverage across all funds under the global resources fund.
The team looks after the £767m First State Global Resources Fund, which is AA-rated by both Standard & Poor’ and OBSR.
In the year to 30 November the fund is down 17.3%, while its benchmark (75% HSBC Global Mining and 25% MSCI AC World Energy Indices) is down 7.9%.
Over three years and five years the fund also drags its benchmark – up 91.2% and 62.8% compared to the benchmark’s gains of 99.5% and 81.4% respectively.