Sanlam has announced Mark Whitehead and his team will join the investment house at the end of the year after the trio announced their exit from Martin Currie last month.
Sanlam will provide Whitehead, along with Alan Porter and Laurie Lochtie, £200m seed capital to launch a global equity income fund.
Whitehead was previously the fund manager on the Securities Trust of Scotland investment trust, which handed Martin Currie protective notice when the fund manager departures were announced.
Portfolio Adviser is awaiting a response from Sanlam about whether it will seek to take on the £201.1m mandate. The notice period ends on 3 December, two days after Whitehead and his team officially exit Martin Currie.
Sanlam head of asset management Tom Carroll said the planned open-ended fund launch for the trio will complement the existing Global High Quality fund, led by Pieter Fourie.
“They have delivered good, consistent alpha over a prolonged period and we believe introducing an additional fund with a complementary style allows us to better deliver consistently strong returns across the cycle for clients, providing them with a centre of excellence in the global equity space,” Carroll said.
In April, Sanlam scooped a trio of fixed income funds from Tideway Investment Partners with £200m in assets. The team, led by Peter Doherty, fill the gap left by Craig Veysey and Francois Kotze, who jumped ship to Man GLG in 2018 and took the firm’s strategic bond fund with them.
Whitehead joined Martin Currie in 2015 from Sarasin & Partners. In 2016, he took over as lead manager of the Securities Trust of Scotland in 2016, replacing Porter.
Sanlam currently has £5.7bn assets under management.
