Challenger execs return with hedge fund as more staff depart
TwoformerChallenger Internationalexecutives are close to launching a new alternative investment management company — Aurora Funds Management — in the domestic market.
Aurora will initially offer a long-short equity fund to retail investors, though once fully established in the market, will move to include buy-write and capital guarantee products, says company co-founder and managing director Alastair Davidson.
“We will be adopting a fairly low risk investment strategy to begin with,” he says.
Davidson was previously Challenger general manager investment banking, but he left the group in January following a management shake-up.
He will be joined at Aurora by former Challenger colleague and senior manager for capital markets Richard Matthews, who resigned from the group a month ago.
Aurora has already been granted an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence from theAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) and now only requires licensing as a responsible entity, Matthews says.
The new management firm will aim to use expert stock picking data from one of the providers in the market then add its own overlay.
At Challenger, Davidson was responsible for the group’s Pooled Development Funds — Efinancial Capital, which was wound-up last year, and the $40 million Biotech Capital Fund. Davidson and Matthews also worked with the $125 million Beston Wine Fund.
Staff churning continues at Challenger following a number of changes to its sales and business development team last week, after the company formally notified its Melbourne staff that a number of them will no longer be required.
In the latest round of retrenchments, four people have left the group, including Victorian state manager Kim McDonald, after staff were called into a meeting and told of the restructure of the group’s state based sales teams.
Sydney staff have been told they will have to wait until this week to find out their fate but sources within the group who have spoken withMoney Managementindicate the process has been open and staff have been notified of the full details of the changes throughout the process.
The Perth and Adelaide offices will not be included in the restructure, while the Brisbane office has already been through the process late last year.
The moves are part of a group wide change initiated since the appointment of formerColonial First Statechief executive Chris Cuffe to the top job at Challenger, with the sales and business development teams being consolidated under retail distribution and technical services head David Asplin.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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