Pengana managers left after dispute over company’s future
The abrupt departure of Pengana fund managers Steven Glass and Jordan Cvetanovski was the result of the pair having “different ideas” about the future direction of the business.
Earlier this week, Pengana announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that the two international equity managers would be departing the business immediately.
Glass was a partner and portfolio manager while Cvetanovski was chief investment officer.
Dean Weinbren, executive director at Pengana, said: “We have several different, distinct investment teams but on the corporate side of the business, it is important that everyone is going in the same direction. In this case, they had different ideas to us on how they wanted to run the business. If these ideas are too different then it is best to part ways.
“It is nothing to do with the investment side of the business or their fund performance, it made sense to move in different directions.”
He said he did not believe the pair had departed to join a new firm.
There would be no changes to the international funds process and the firm was “actively working” to find a replacement manager, while the underlying research team remained the same. The funds were currently being managed by James McDonald on an interim basis.
“We have the luxury of taking our time and making sure we find the best management as the whole underlying team is still in place. We have no timescale but are actively working on it,” Weinbren said.
The Pengana International Fund and International Ethical Fund rankings were put on hold by SQM Research while it undertook an assessment of the new arrangements.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
Tribeca Investment Partners has made a distribution hire from Australian Ethical in a newly-created role focused on the national intermediary market.
Asset managers may be urged to diversify their product ranges, but investment executives have warned any M&A deal should avoid simply filling gaps and instead consider long-term value creation.
Specialist wealth platform provider Mason Stevens has become the latest target of an acquisition as it enters a binding agreement with a leading Sydney-based private equity firm.
Fund managers are entering 2025 with the most bullish sentiment since August 2021 and record high allocations to US equities, thanks to the incoming Trump administration.
