Credit Suisse loses Aussie equities head

CreditSuisse Asset Management (CSAM) has suffered another blow to its Australian equities capabilities, with the departure of group head Peter Sartori prompting one fund to be placed on hold and another to be dubbed “weak”.

Sartori, who has been replaced by portfolio manager Andrew Fleming, took over as head of CSAM’s Australian equities division last October following a restructure that claimed former chief Craig McCourtie.

Sartori had previously been CSAM head of Asia ex-Japan equities, a role he maintained when he took over the Australian equites division. Despite the changes, CSAM continued to languish at the bottom of the Australian equities league tables, finishing 2004 as the third worst performing manager, according to Mercer figures, returning 22.9 per cent against 27.9 per cent for the S&P/ASX 300.

In response to Sartori’s exit, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) placed CSAM’s Asia non-Japan fund on hold.

S&P associate director fund ratings Veronica Gullo said the research house’s recent decision to downgrade CSAM’s large cap Australian equities fund to a “weak” rating had been reinforced by the departure.

“There has been so much change it has been difficult to maintain any sort of performance,” she said.

On the appointment of Fleming, Gullo said: “He is a very capable investment manager. He ran their small caps team effectively and we rated that pretty well. We have a lot of confidence in Andrew but it comes from his experience in small caps.”