Global Resources manager exits Martin Currie

Martin Currie's global resources manager Chris Butler is set to leave the firm on 31 December.

Butler (pictured) will hand his $118m Global Resources, $46m Global Resources Absolute Return Alpha and $160m Global Resources Absolute Return funds to existing co-managers Ruairidh Stewart and Duncan Goodwin on 1 December.

The Global Resources fund is a Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV, Global Resources Absolute Alpha is a UCITS compliant equity long/short fund, while Global Resoures Absolute Return is an unregulated product domiciled in Bermuda.

After 22 years with Martin Currie, Butler is retiring from the investment management industry to focus on other interests.

Stewart, who joined Martin Currie in 2007, also co-manages the group's Global Energy fund. Previously he oversaw European energy research at Simmons & Company.

Goodwin joined the firm in 2005 and co-manages the energy fund with Stewart. He joined from Merrill Lynch where he was a director of equity research for oil and gas stocks. He was formerly a European energy analyst at Lehman Brothers.

Martin Currie has had a difficult third quarter, seeing assets under management fall 37% over the period, from £4bn to £6.4bn as of 30 September.

Andy Sowerby, Martin Currie's managing director of sales and marketing, said the losses were in part due to the impact of the eurozone crisis, to which the company is particularly sensitive to due to its core focus on equities products.

However, other factors included the departure of China manager Chris Ruffle and his team in July this year, which led to a series of redemptions on their China Absolute Return fund.

In addition, the transformation of the business last year to concentrate purely on global markets, rather than UK-based products, led the firm to wind up its UK and European equity products and some of these assets have been repaid this year, contributing to the loss, said Sowerby.

The firm will now concentrate on developing its strengths in global equities, and will look to build on growing trends in equity income, emerging markets and absolute returns in the future.