Aberdeen rebuilds Aussie equities team

Aberdeen Asset Management has partially plugged the hole left by the recent departure of two Australian equity managers, recruiting Mark Daniels from its London office as head of its domestic equities team in Sydney.

Former head of the firm’s Australian equities desk Steven Robinson resigned last month after seven years to join Sydney-based boutique Alleron Investment Management, while Munib Madni also departed for a role in Singapore with Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Daniels has been with Aberdeen for 15 years, focussing on UK equity and closed-end funds, and for five years before that was a manager at Richard Longstaff, a firm acquired by Aberdeen in 1990.

Aberdeen director Charlie Macrae said the Sydney desk would continue to rely on its Singapore counterparts a little more than usual over the next couple of months, while Daniels shuttled between Sydney and London during his relocation.

“We’ve already got Maria Papathanasiou and Michelle Casas on the ground here, and we’re going to be hiring a graduate analyst in the next month, so after that it will be a four-hander again,” Macrae said.

Researcher reaction to the news of Daniels’ appointment had been muted so far Macrae said, but he was in dialogue with Navigator to reverse the ‘on hold’ rating it placed on several Aberdeen funds following the resignation of Robinson and Madni.

Navigator research manager Stuart Fechner said his team would conduct a further interview with Daniels, and wait until he and the other recruit had started in Sydney, before reinstating its three-star rating on Abderdeen’s Australian equity funds.