Neuberger Berman Group's eight-person taxable cash management team, led by John C. Donohue, has joined Dwight Asset Management.
Mr. Donohue was named an executive vice president and head of cash management at Dwight.
He will be joined by Eric Hiatt, senior vice president and portfolio manager; Tim Robey, vice president and portfolio manager; Jeffrey Boutin, senior vice president and credit analyst; John Dyer, vice president and credit analyst; Robert Swidey, senior vice president, risk management and operations; Kevin Zimmerman, vice president, institutional sales; and Dalvin Estrada, trader.
All positions at Dwight are new.
Mr. Donohue had been a managing director at Neuberger Berman, while Messrs. Hiatt, Boutin and Swidey had been senior vice presidents; Messrs. Robey, Dyer and Zimmerman had been vice presidents and Mr. Estrada had been a trader.
In an interview, Tom Turpin, president and CEO of Dwight parent Old Mutual Asset Management, said the “friendly liftout” of Mr. Donohue's team followed a decision by Neuberger — formerly Lehman Brothers Asset Management — to exit the taxable cash management business.
In a separate interview, David W. Richardson, a managing director with Dwight, said Mr. Donohue's team will let Dwight better serve its three main business segments — providing liquidity management capabilities to insurance clients, adding an interest rate swap/overlays-cash long-duration option for LDI strategies and bolstering the firm's stable value/capital preservation offerings to 401(k) clients.
Separately, Neuberger Berman Group hired SSgA as an adviser of taxable money market funds to Neuberger fund shareholders and clients.
In an interview, Joseph Amato, president of Neuberger Berman, said as a newly independent company, Neuberger made a decision to focus on its core business — its equity, long-duration fixed income and alternatives strategies.
The taxable money fund business might have made sense as part of Lehman Brothers, but as an independent firm, “we didn't think we could provide the right level of focus,” and opted to tap SSgA's strong money market capabilities instead, Mr. Amato said.
Around Aug. 14, shareholders with roughly $4.6 billion in four Neuberger funds — Neuberger Berman Government Money Fund, NB Institutional Cash Fund, NB Cash Reserves and NB Treasury Fund — will acquire shares of State Street Institutional Trust funds with comparable investment objectives.
