Schroders bulks up US credit team

By Will Caiger-Smith

NEW YORK, Aug 23 (IFR) - Schroders (LSE: SDR.L - news) said it has made three senior hires for its New York credit and trading teams to help handle the growing global interest in the US credit markets.

The UK-headquartered asset manager said that David Knutson, formerly with Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) , is taking on a newly created role as head of credit research for the Americas.

Chris Eger, previously a credit trader at JP Morgan focused on domestic and Yankee banks, is joining as a portfolio manager, also in a newly created position.

Both will report to Wes Sparks, head of US credit.

Eric Skelton, formerly a credit trader at now-closed hedge fund Achievement Asset Management, is joining the global fixed income and FX trading team as a US credit trader.

That role is not newly created, but Schroders declined to say who Skelton was replacing.

Skelton will report to Gregg Moore, head of trading for the Americas.

The new hires reflect an increase in fund inflows, particularly from corporate pension funds and foreign financial institutions, said Karl Dasher, North America CEO of Schroders.

"We're seeing the US opportunity set become a larger proportion of global investor budgets, because of zero interest-rate and negative interest-rate policies in Asia and Europe," he told IFR.

"A significant part of what we are receiving globally is finding a home in the US and emerging markets, because that is where you can still receive some level of reasonable compensation for credit risk."

That demand should remain "relatively persistent" for the next five to 10 years, he said.

Schroders currently has over 150 employees focused on fixed income globally, with over US$125bn in assets under management as of March 2016.

It has 22 portfolio managers and researchers dedicated to US credit.

That number will increase when Schroders closes its acquisition of Brookfield Investment Management's asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities team in September. (Reporting by Will Caiger-Smith; Editing by Marc Carnegie)