Deutsche Asset Management has reached agreements to hire 16 investment professionals from INVESCO, including five global partners from INVESCO’s worldwide fixed-income group, confirmed DeAM spokesman Ted Meyer.
Stephen M. Johnson, CIO of the fixed-income group, will join DeAM, along with Kenneth Bowling, INVESCO’s director of fixed income and a portfolio manager; James Guenther, director of global credit research; Randy Paas, director of marketing; and Mark Dowding, director of U.K. and global fixed income. Each will be a managing director at DeAM and will report to Bart Grenier, managing director and global head of specialty fixed income. The other 11 people were described as “senior staff,” but Mr. Meyer declined to disclose their names or positions.
INVESCO has contested the hirings and, in a lawsuit filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court, alleged Deutsche “has been scheming with Global Partners for months in an effort to raid illegally WFI’s business,” according to the complaint. The group manages more than $93 billion. Doug Kidd, spokesman for INVESCO, said all of the global partners are under contract to stay with the firm for 12 months after announcing their intentions to resign, which each did yesterday.
Mr. Meyer said in a statement that Deutsche plans “to contest this suit vigorously. Senior members of the INVESCO team approached our management unsolicited and expressed an interest in joining our growing global asset management business.”
Mr. Johnson, reached at his Louisville, Ky., office, declined to comment and referred questions to INVESCO’s press office.
