Suncorp fills breach

Brett Himbury

Suncorp has moved to shore up its Australian equities operations in the wake of the loss of nine personnel from its investment management team.

Suncorp executive general manager for asset management Brett Himbury said that Dr Stephen Lam had been appointed interim head of equities for the Suncorp Investment Management business and gave an assurance that the arrangements had been put in place to ensure the Suncorp investment management business would operate as usual.

Himbury’s announcement followed news last Friday that Wilson HTM Investment Group subsidiary Pinnacle Investment Management has launched a new boutique funds manager into the market on the back of having recruited nine former Suncorp Investment Management team members.

The company announced on the Australian Stock Exchange that Pinnacle had entered into a shareholder's agreement and exchanged employment contracts with the nine former Suncorp operatives — Denis Donohue, Sean Martin, William Earnshaw, Andrew Gatenby, Bernard Machen, Michael Bell, John Hodder, Damien Keune and Robert Pownell.

It said that under the Pinnacle umbrella the team would establish a new boutique fund manager, which would be Queensland-based and led by Donohue as managing director, with Martin and Earnshaw being executive directors.

It said the team would initially be comprised of nine investment professionals including six equity partners, with the executives owning a total of 60 per cent of the equity.

Commenting on the move, Pinnacle managing director Ian Macoun said the company’s mission was to create Australia’s premier house of boutiques and it was doing this by focusing its sights on partnering with high quality investment professionals.