Investment Week

Snowden and team to join Artemis

Leaving Kames after seven years

Stephen Snowden
Stephen Snowden
  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
0 Comments

Kames Capital's co-head of fixed income Stephen Snowden and head of high yield David Ennett are set to join Artemis next year, Investment Week understands.

The news comes after it was announced Snowden and three other members of its fixed income team had left including head of high yield David Ennett and fund managers Stephen Baines and Juan Valenzuela.

All four are set to join Artemis in 2019, Investment Week understands.

Snowden (pictured) started his career at Kames in 1994 before leaving to join Old Mutual Asset Management in 2004 to manage its corporate bond fund.

He rejoined Kames in July 2011 and has been responsible for managing two investment grade bond funds and an absolute return bond fund.

Ennett joined Kames in August 2016 from Standard Life Investments, where he spent six years, most recently as head of European high yield.

Valenzuela  joined Kames in 2015 as a fixed income manager from Alliance Trust where he was an investment manager on the Alliance Trust Dynamic Bond fund. 

While Baines started his career at Baillie Gifford in 2004. He joined Kames from Oriel Asset Management in 2013.

In response to the exits, Kames made a raft of changes to its fixed income team with Grace Le joining existing co-manager Euan McNeil on the Investment Grade Bond and Investment Grade Global Bond funds, Rory Sandilands becoming co-manager with existing manager Colin Finlayson on the Absolute Return Bond fund and Finlayson also becoming co-manager on the Strategic Bond and Strategic Global Bond funds with current co-manager Alex Pelteshki.

Furthermore Jack Holmes and Mark Benbow will co-manage the High Yield Bond and Short Dated High Yield Bond funds, while Benbow will also be promoted as co-manager on the High Yield Global Bond fund alongside Holmes.

Kames has seen a number of exits from its fixed income team including Phil Milburn and David Roberts, who left to join Liontrust Asset Management in August 2017.

Artemis run a number of fixed income strategies including its £1.3bn Strategic Bond fund co-managed by James Foster and Alex Ralph, and its £1.3bn High Income fund also run by Ralph.

Reaction

Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at investment platform AJ Bell, commented: "The news that Snowden is joining Artemis is a big positive for the firm, which will now be in a position to have a broader range of fixed interest funds to complement its existing Strategic Bond and High Income funds.

"The investment philosophy of Artemis will sit well with Snowden, who has always been focused on delivering alpha and is prepared to invest differently to the benchmark.

"He is also very well known in the wealth manager space, giving Artemis an excellent opportunity to hit the ground running. We look forward to meeting with him and the team when they arrive."

  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  

More news