Franklin Templeton has acquired the US-based investment grade credit team from Aviva Investors.
The talent acquisition includes senior portfolio managers Josh Lohmeier and Michael Cho, who will join Franklin Templeton Fixed Income (FTFI) and report to FTFI CIO, Sonal Desai (pictured).
Aviva’s head of Americas client solutions, Tom Meyers, will also join FTFI as SVP, senior director of investments and strategy development, fixed income.
According to Franklin Templeton, Meyers will lead a newly formed team that will be responsible for representing FTFI’s global fixed income investment strategies. He will help set the strategy for engagement with clients, prospects, and intermediaries to discuss FTFI’s investment philosophy, process and performance.
He will oversee the implementation of this strategy via a team of investment specialists and client-focused functions as an integrated part of FTFI’s investment team, focusing on partnership with key distribution channels to support business growth.
FTFI has $156bn (£114.3bn) in assets under management, with approximately $13bn (£9.5bn) of that in corporate credit strategies, as of 31 August 2021.
The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Aviva’s investment grade credit team currently manages $7.5bn (£5.5bn) in institutional assets under management across a range of strategies including US investment grade credit, US long duration credit, US long duration government/credit and US intermediate credit.
Those currently invested in these strategies have the option to remain with the team and have their assets managed by Franklin Templeton.
“Bringing this experienced team aboard will complement our existing credit capabilities by further deepening our expertise in investment grade credit, strengthening our research and analysis resources, and expanding our strategy offerings and capabilities further into the institutional marketplace, with a special focus on defined benefit and liability-driven investing,” said Desai.
