Diane joins Threadneedle on 12 September from Columbia Management, a fellow asset management subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, where she is a New-York based Portfolio Manager for US equities. Diane has had a 28 year career, specialising more recently in value portfolio management of US equities. She joined Columbia Management in 2001, and co-managed large and mid-cap value mutual funds and institutional portfolios.

Nafis joined Threadneedle on 25 July from Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division, where he was an analyst in the UK Mergers & Acquisitions team gaining a broad range of M&A, restructuring, credit and equity experience.

The appointments bring Threadneedle’s US Equities team to a total of eight, with three fund managers and five analysts. The team works closely with Threadneedle’s other investment teams through its collaborative investment process. Threadneedle manages over £7bn in US equities. By value of assets, 100% of its North American OEICs, SICAVs and pooled pension funds have outperformed their peers or benchmarks over 3 and 5 years, and 88% of these funds have outperformed over 1 year (to end May 2011).

Cormac Weldon , Head of US Equities, commented: “We are pleased to have Diane joining us from Columbia Management. She has a proven track record in managing US equities funds with a focus on value management. We take a team-based approach to fund management, with a culture of open discussion, debate and sharing of ideas, and I’m confident that Diane and Nafis will provide valuable input to this process.”

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UK-based Threadneedle Investments actively manages over $A110 billion of assets globally. In Australia, it manages $A1 billion in Asset Backed Mortgage Securities and offers its suite of equity and fixed income funds to institutional investors.

Certitude will offer the Threadneedle Global Equity Fund, an Australian registered investment management scheme which invests in the actively managed Threadneedle Global Select Fund. It will provide  access to the fund to the local retail market including; research houses, platforms, dealer groups, financial advisers, family offices and multi-managers, previously only available in Australia to institutional investors.

The fund will also provide a quality solution for the Self-Managed Super Funds which are often over-reliant on local equities to achieve alpha in a portfolio.

Managed by Jeremy Podger, Head of Global Equities at Threadneedle Investments, since 2003, the Threadneedle Global Select Fund has consistently outperformed its benchmark (MSCI AC World) over the past 3, 5 and 7 years, with a cumulative return of 35.3 per cent over the past 5 years and 21.0 per cent over 1 year, as at May 31, 2011.

The timing of the fund launch complements the shift of Australian investors who are demanding greater international exposure in the portfolios.

“We are approaching what we see as a tipping point in global equities and believe Australian retail investors allocation to global equities will rise dramatically in coming years as investors look for diversification and greater opportunity in developed, emerging and frontier markets,” Threadneedle Investments Head of Australian Distribution, David Chinnery said.

“The high Australian dollar also provides an opportune time for Australian investors to diversify portfolios beyond the local market. We are delighted to be selected by, and working with, Certitude. We understand how to support retail investors, being the fourth largest retail fund provider in the UK and are keen to leverage our expertise in Australia.”

Certitude aims to identify the best active investment managers in the world and make them available to Australian investors.

“We were looking for a long only active global equity flagship fund to market and we found that with the Threadneedle Global Equity Fund,” Certitude CEO Craig Mowll said.

“We initially identified over 4000 potential funds offered by global fund managers and interviewed nearly100 of the best available managers around the world.  From there we developed a shortlist of nine, from which Threadneedle Investments was identified as the best solution – in terms of price, return and scope – for the retail and High Net Worth market in Australia.”

The Threadneedle Global Equities Fund is scheduled to be available to retail investors by the end of July.

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