Ariel Investments lured a five-person team managing emerging markets value equities at AllianceBernstein to join the firm in April this year, a spokeswoman confirmed.
The new strategy will be led by Henry Mallari-D'Auria, who was CIO of emerging markets value equities at AllianceBernstein, Ariel said in a report to investors.
Mr. Mallari-D'Auria will be joined by Vlad Byalik, who was a portfolio manager and senior research analyst for emerging markets value and frontier markets equities at AB.
Christine Phillpotts also was a portfolio manager and senior research analyst for emerging markets value and frontier markets equities .
Also joining the Ariel emerging markets team will be Slava Breusov, a senior research analyst, and Ted Mann, also a senior research analyst.
Regarding the new emerging markets value team, an Ariel spokeswoman said "we don't have any new titles yet," noting that the new employees moving to Ariel are on "gardening leave and after that we can formally announce their roles and launch the new product."
An AllianceBernstein spokeswoman said in an email that "Stuart Rae and John Lin will continue to manage the firm's emerging markets value strategy."
With the team departures, Mr. Rae has been appointed chief investment officer-emerging markets value strategy and lead portfolio manager, the spokeswoman said. He joined the emerging markets value team in 2015.
Mr. Lin remains CIO-China equities and "will continue to work alongside Mr. Rae to manage the emerging markets value strategy," the spokeswoman said, adding that Mr. Lin joined the emerging markets value portfolio team in 2021.
Ariel said in the client report that Mr. Mallari-D'Auria expects to hire another research analyst and two or three associates once the team joins Ariel in its New York office.
Ariel Investments managed a total of $16.2 billion as of Dec. 31.
