Recruitment returning to credit funds

There are signs that asset managers are beginning to regain their appetite for recruitment, and those with expertise around credit funds appear to be a beneficiary of this.

A recent investor survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch said that inflows of new money into institutional credit funds beat outflows by the "greatest ever margin" in the three months to May this year, which is something of an about turn from the same time in 2008.

Recruitment already appears to be ramping up. "We've been working on some mandates in this area in the last couple of months and have heard anecdotally that a number of other investment houses are also hiring," says Samantha Donauld of recruitment firm Shepherd Little.

Notable recent hires include Thames River Capital's appointment to its global credit team of Stephen Drew and Simon Ulcickas, Mark Wauton as head of credit at Aviva Investors, John Anderson who's due to start as head of credit at Gartmore in July, and Derek Fulton who will focus on credit at new boutique firm Newscape.

Axa Investment Managers, BlackRock and JPMorgan Asset Management are also rumoured to be on the lookout.

"Generally, asset management firms are sitting on their hands when it comes to recruitment, but there have been a few notable credit hires recently," says Martin Lorigan, head of asset management at Principal Search.

Patrick Morrissey, group managing director of executive search firm Sheffield Haworth, said client relationship managers will also be needed if inflows continue.

However, Amin Rajan, chief executive of asset management think tank Create said the biggest news is that fund managers are no longer firing people: "Our research suggests that we're unlikely to see substantive recruitment activity until the second quarter next year."