Gam has added a credit analyst on its £4.9bn Star Credit Opportunities Strategy as it looks to expand its research team.
Anthony Giret (pictured) has been appointed by Atlanticomnium, which has run the strategy on behalf of Gam since 1985, to the research team supporting the fund. Based in Geneva, he will report to Romain Miginiac, head of research at Atlanticomnium.
The Gam Star Credit Opportunities fund aims to generate steady income from the bonds of quality companies, with a focus on subordinated debt to capture higher yields. It invests along the capital structure of banks, insurers and corporates.
There are three versions of the fund, including a sterling denominated Oeic which has around £714m worth of assets, according to Trustnet.
On a five-year view the fund is in the first quartile of the IA Sterling Strategic Bond sector, returning 30.6% against the sector’s 22.1%. But since then performance has faltered with the fund returning 7.9% over three years against the average fund’s gains of 10.7%.
In his role Giret will analyse corporates, with a particular focus on the hybrid debt of investment grade issuers. Prior to joining Atlanticomnium he spent seven years as an analyst at independent credit research firm and ratings agency, Spread Research, predominantly covering European high yield bonds. While there, he was also responsible for issuing and monitoring credit ratings and analysing private debt issuances.
Atlanticomnium CEO Anthony Smouha said Giret’s appointment is part of Gam’s commitment to expand its research team and said his “strong credit analysis experience” will add “greater depth and breadth to our team of analysts”.
Last December the firm hired Yi Qian as a credit analyst from Axa.
