The appointment usurps Dihren Shah, who was co-head of EM equities with Tubbs and who will remain as co-manager of both the onshore and offshore emerging markets funds.
Soares joined BlackRock in January and has spent a couple of months settling in before being named lead manager on any of the funds.
He was most recently at Axiom International Investors where he managed the EM Equity Fund from August 2007, building the firm’s EM business up from inception to have $1bn in AUM.
Soares will report to BlackRock’s CIO of fundamental equity (Americas) Chris Leavy, and will work closely with Sam Vecht, head of the EEMEA equity team, Andrew Swan, head of the Asian equity team and Will Landers, head of the Latin America equity team.
The onshore BFM Emerging Markets Fund has returned 110.6% in the past three years, compared to a sector average of 101.4%, according to FE.
Meanwhile, the offshore BGF EM Fund has returned 121% over the same time period, versus 11.5% for the emerging markets equity sector.
