ING Investment Management (INGIM) Australia has positioned its wholesale business for the next stage of growth, with the final two hires of this year and a four star rating for its Extended Alpha Australian Share Fund.

INGIM has made a concerted effort to build its wholesale business this year with more than seven key hires including industry veteran Jim McKay as head of sales.

“INGIM now has a complete team of experienced professionals including a Melbourne office, allowing us to focus on bringing the best of both our local and global strategies to advisers,” said Mr McKay.

These best of breed strategies include the ING Extended Alpha Australian Share Fund and ING Wholesale Global Property Securities (GPS) Fund, which has just had its ‘Highly Recommended’ rating reaffirmed by
Lonsec.

Experienced BDMs to take on Northern Region

The two new hires are both BDMs for the Northern Region: Heath Branigan, who has 10 years experience in asset management in the United Kingdom and Australia and Jenine Hayman, an experienced business
development and research relationship professional with 19 years experience in the financial services industry.

Both will report to Natalie Grey, the recently announced Northern Regional manager.

“We are very pleased to be working with these highly experienced professionals, who are the final pieces of the puzzle in developing our wholesale team and whose experience will help us develop key relationships in this area,” said Mr McKay.

Ms Hayman most recently worked for Mediascape Analytical & Research Services as a client relationship and business development manager. She has also worked for AXA Australia as a business development manager and spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs JBWere Asset Management as a research and platform support manager.

Mr Branigan joins from Hedge Harbor in the UK where he worked in institutional sales for Europe and Australia, and was responsible for relationship development across a diverse international institutional client base. He has also worked for AMP Capital Investors in Australia and JP Morgan Asset Management in the UK and is a chartered alternative investment analyst.

Four stars for Extended Alpha fund

INGIM has just received a four star rating for the ING Extended Alpha Australian Share Fund from S&P – its first rating of the fund. S&P said the rating “reflects our high conviction that the manager will consistently generate risk-adjusted returns in excess of relevant investment objectives and relative to peers”.

“After significant market dislocations such as the GFC, history shows markets move sideways for long periods of time. With the increased volatility experienced in the last 18 months, and which we expect going into 2011, capturing alpha to generate returns is absolutely imperative for portfolios,” Mr McKay said.

The Extended Alpha fund also has a ‘Highly Recommended’ rating from Lonsec and a ‘Recommended’ rating from Zenith.

Meanwhile Lonsec has reaffirmed the ING Wholesale Global Property Securities (GPS) Fund’s ‘Highly Recommended’ rating which it has maintained since 2006.

According to its report, Lonsec retained this rating due to the fund’s “extensive and stable investment team” and its “clear and comprehensive investment process, which can be consistently applied on a global basis”.

The GPS fund also has a five star rating from S&P and is ‘Highly Recommended’ by Zenith. The fund recently also won the property category at the 2010 S&P Fund Awards for the fourth year in a row.

“The ratings reflect our efforts and performance as well as the strength of our team, and we are pleased to be recognised appropriately,” said Mr McKay. “Since launching Extended Alpha this year we have seen a strong response and the fund is going from strength to strength.

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