After a 30% drop in assets, Invesco executives say the fallout from last year's defection of key stable value team members is finally over.
When 16 staffers left in March 2007 to join Deutsche Asset Management, Invesco managed $47.4 billion in stable value assets. That number has since dropped to $32.3 billion, but is now holding steady, executives said. Invesco would not disclose how many stable value clients it has.
While acknowledging that 2007 was a “trying year,” Rich King, managing director and head of fixed income for Invesco's Louisville, Ky., office, said there is tangible evidence the business is now steady.
“We've only had one new notification (that a client was dropping Invesco) this year,” Mr. King said. He would not identify the client. He added the firm is showing up in searches this year.
Mr. King also noted the three Invesco strategies that feed into the stable value fund all outperformed their benchmarks in 2007. “That comes in a year when most managers underperformed their benchmarks,” Mr. King said.
Also, no other staff members have left Invesco's stable value group since the original defections were announced in March and April of 2007, he noted.
At least one consultant agrees with Mr. King's outlook.
Mercer LLC automatically put Invesco on watch for a year following the departures, but the firm likely will be taken off the list soon, said Jeffery Schutes, the U.S. business leader for Mercer.
“We're getting very close to taking them off the watch list at this point,” he said. “They haven't missed anything on performance.”