S&P puts BlackRock 'on hold' after departures

Standard & Poor's (S&P) Fund Services has placed seven BlackRock funds ‘on hold’ following the departures of two team heads.

Australian head of scientific active equity investments, Andrew Jackson, will work out his three-month notice. Head of portfolio management active equity Davis Walsh will depart at the end of June.

It is currently unclear what the pair’s reasons for leaving are, or if they plan on joining a competitor, according to S&P.

Although S&P was comfortable that BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors strategies would be largely unaffected by initial management changes following the merger between the groups last year, the latest resignations had changed that perspective, according to S&P fund analyst Justine Gorman.

Michael McCorry, Australian head of BlackRock’s international strategies group, has arranged for the immediate transfer of two portfolio managers from BlackRock’s San Francisco office to manage the scientific active equity strategies until a long-term solution is found, according to S&P.

BlackRock’s index funds have also been placed ‘on hold’ until S&P has met with the strategy management team. The indexation team recently lost portfolio managers Glen Harris and Nick Burt, although Melbourne-based BlackRock managers Ritchard Longmire and Andre Roberts have been added.

BlackRock has also appointed a new global head of scientific active equity business, Ken Kroner. The position had been tentatively held by vice chairman and chief investment officer Blake Grossman following Morry Waked’s resignation, according to S&P. Kroner will continue to head the ex-BGI global market strategies group.

S&P said it will meet with McCorry and the new indexation managers in the coming week. BlackRock’s Scientific Global Markets Fund is not affected by the changes.