The APac/GEM equities team will now operate under the sub-brand ‘First State Stewart’, while the EM debt team will keep its current name.
It is understood the launch of the Emerging Markets Bond Fund last year, which is run by Helene Williamson and her EM debt team, created some confusion among clients, who thought the fund might be run by Tulloch and co.
Williamson joined First State in September after she was poached from her position of head of EM debt at F&C, where she ran the €100m F&C EM Bond Fund, with a five year track record of 50%+ returns.
Since she started at First State she has been building up her team from scratch and while the team is managing mainly institutional/segregated mandates at the moment, the plan is to launch another wholesale fund for them soon. As at 31 December the team had £465m AUM.
Out-dated name
An additional reason for the change in Tulloch and Paul’s team name is that its existing name was getting a bit "out of date".
The launch of a Worldwide Equity Fund for Jonathan Asante and Stuart Paul back in June means the team is also investing in developed market equities, albeit for their exposure to EM.
The Stewart element of the new sub-brand harks back to the team’s heritage as it was following the acquisition of Stewart Ivory in 2000 that Angus Tulloch joined the firm and the GEM expertise was born.
None of the funds or job roles within the team will change as a result of the rebrand.
Stuart Paul, joint managing partner of First State Stewart, said: "We welcome the new development which we believe will assist our investors in differentiating between products managed by different teams at First State Investments."
