Ed Butchart has joined Kepler Partners as emerging markets CIO, alongside a team of three research analysts, confirmed Tom Trotter, senior partner and head of sales.
The team joined from Sloane Robinson, a hedge fund that closed last year. Mr. Butchart was CIO since 2011.
Mr. Butchart and the emerging markets team will be responsible for managing the KLS Emerging Markets fund, which was originally launched in partnership with Sloane Robinson in 2017. Since that date, the strategy, which invests in global emerging market equities, has been hosted on the Kepler's liquid strategies platform. The fund gained 28.75% in 2020 and has generated a 13.85% annualized return since inception.
The liquid strategies platform has five strategies and about $1 billion in assets under management. The emerging markets strategy is the first managed in-house at Kepler.
"With Sloane Robinson closing, we are delighted that Ed and his team are joining Kepler to continue to manage the KLS Emerging Markets fund," Mr. Trotter said in an interview.
"Ed has established an impressive performance track record at Sloane Robinson and thanks to the support of his existing investors, it's great to be able to continue this in-house at Kepler," he said. "We place a big emphasis on truly partnering with the managers we have on our UCITS platform, so this feels like a very natural step for us to take."
