Duffield poaches another manager

JOHN Duffield, maverick boss of fund manager New Star Asset Management, has headhunted another top name from a rival. Duffield, determined to build the best investment house in Britain around a core of tried and tested fund managers, has persuaded M&G bond fund manager Theodora Zemek to join.

This follows Friday's announcement that New Star has recruited Stephen Whittaker from Invesco Perpetual. Whittaker will join the UK equity team. During the Nineties, as head of fixed income, Zemek was responsible for making M&G one of the country's biggest players in the burgeoning corporate bond market. But following M&G's acquisition by Prudential in early 1999, she was moved away from bonds and made chief investment officer for M&G International, M&G's offshore business.

Duffield told Financial Mail that Zemek will return to bond management and build a fixed-income team at New Star. New retail bond funds will follow, he said, but Zemek will not join New Star until November because of contractual delays.

'In Zemek and Whittaker, we have acquired two fund manager stars,' he said. He confirmed that no further high- profile managers would be poached from rivals. 'We now have a team in place to rival any of our competitors. It is time to bed down and consolidate.'

But he did not rule out a big acquisition. New Star has funds under management of £2.3bn, and earlier this year Duffield shelved a move to buy the fund management operation of Royal & SunAlliance, since acquired by Friends Ivory & Sime.

Whittaker, manager of the £770m Invesco Perpetual UK Growth fund, is on 'gardening leave' - a label for employees who are about to leave a company and may have sensitive information.

Mike Webb, chief executive of Invesco Perpetual's retail business, said Whittaker had been replaced by Ed Burke, an existing member of the UK equity team. 'Whittaker hankered after a smaller investment team environment. The New Star opportunity was too good to turn down,' said Webb.