MSN MoneyCentral – Julius Baer has sold its $9bn London fixed-income investment boutique to management, just 18 months after the Swiss bank bought the far larger Global Asset Management from rivalUBS.
The newly independent division – rebranded as Augustus Asset Managers – has recruited Howard Carter, former chief executive of Foreign & Colonial, the UK-based investment trust group, as non-executive chairman.
Augustus will continue running hedge funds, traditional long-only funds and absolute return funds for Julius Baer but hopes to use its independence to expand, particularly in the US.
However, the first job of the management team is to turn round performance after a dismal year during which the two flagship hedge funds both failed to generate acceptable returns.
