Man GLG has nabbed Schroder’s bond manager Jonathan Golan for its credit team.
Golan (pictured) will join the discretionary investment arm of Man Group in July 2021, reporting directly to Man GLG CEO Teun Johnston. He will be responsible for managing a strategy focusing on corporate bonds and will also launch a new dynamic bond strategy.
Golan spent eight years at Schroders, most recently serving as lead fund manager on the £1.4bn Sterling Corporate Bond fund and the £76.9m Strategic Bond fund.
The Sterling Corporate Bond fund returned 30.3% over three years, double the IA Sterling Corporate Bond average of 14.1% while the Strategic Bond fund returned 21.3% over the same period, also higher than the IA Sterling Strategic Bond average of 13.9%, according to Trustnet.
Golan is the latest high-profile hire for Man GLG after poaching Blackrock vet Andrew Swan last year. Swan launched his second fund for the asset manager in February.
Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond sees Elite rating stripped
AJ Bell head of active portfolios Ryan Hughes said Golan was “certainly very comfortable investing away from the index which had driven some strong outperformance, particularly over the last year when the fund was significantly underweight in higher quality A and AA names, helping to fully capture the bounce back in the bond market”.
Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, said that Golan was “doing very well at Schroders” but that he was “backed by one of the best resourced credit teams” there.
The Sterling Corporate Bond fund will be taken taken over by Daniel Pearson, who co-manages the Schroders High Yield Opportunities fund, and Julian Houdain, co-manager of the Schroders Strategic Bond fund.
The fund will lose its Elite FundCalibre rating, and be removed from Chelsea Financial Services’ buy list pending a meeting with the new managers, according to McDermott.
Flows could follow Golan out the door
A Schroders spokesperson said that Golan will “work closely with the team to ensure a smooth handover of his responsibilities”, adding that they have “a strong, team-based approach and a robust investment process, which is designed to ensure continuity and consistency in the management of our fixed income portfolios.”
Hughes said that while the team should have no issues taking on the portfolio, the key issue lies with how wedded investors are to Golan as the lead manager.
He said: “I would expect some to follow Golan to a new strategy or Man GLG or potentially switch to an alternative high conviction bond fund such as Artemis Corporate Bond managed by Steve Snowden.”
Hughes believes that Golan’s approach will sit well with Man GLG “who are known to allow their managers freedom to invest how they see fit and take risk away from the benchmark”.
Johnston said of the appointment: “Jonathan has an established track record of delivering award-winning and top performing sterling corporate bond and income-oriented strategies, which we believe will be well-suited to the needs of our clients in the continued low interest rate environment.”
Man Group ended 2020 with record funds under management of $123.6bn (£90.2bn), up from $117.7bn (£85.9bn) in 2019, recovering from a difficult first six months of the year in which profits slumped 40%.
