Ratings on UBS Australian Equity Products unaffected by team developments
Standard & Poor’s Fund Services today announced that its ratings on UBS Australian equity products remain unchanged following an announcement by UBS Global Asset Management (UBS Global AM), outlining additional hires and role changes. These changes relate to the integration of ING Investment Management (ING IM), and the implementation of its boutique structure for Australian equities.
Six ING IM individuals will become employees of UBS Global Asset Management. These are Joel Fleming (Australian equities small companies), David Scott and Patrick Barrett (property securities), Michael Fanning (structured beta and indexing), and, Rachel O’Connor and Thomas Wu (Australian fixed income). These hires are effective April 1, 2012, following completion of the integration of ING IM on March 30, 2012.
The previously announced UBS-branded Australian equities boutique offers three capabilities; large-cap, small-cap, and property securities. The additional hires within the Australian equities boutique include Joel Fleming and David Haddad (small-cap), David Scott and Patrick Barrett (property securities), and Steve Coffey (large-cap).
UBS has also advised that Simon Shields (head of equities) and Shane Fitzgerald (financials and gaming analyst) will be forming a separate, independently branded boutique on the new UBS platform. They will launch a distinct, total return strategy with a global opportunity set.
We note that Jakov Males has been directly responsible for the UBS flagship Australian Share Fund since October 2011 (and was previously back-up portfolio manager). Mr. Males was head of Australian equities at Allianz Global Investors prior to joining UBS Global AM in April 2007. He is an experienced investor, and is well regarded by S&P. In addition, Mr. Fitzgerald’s sector responsibilities have been assumed by Steve Coffey, who recently joined UBS Global AM from QBE. Mr. Coffey will also have back-up portfolio management responsibilities within the large-cap team, alongside head of research Marissa Rossi.
