New Star’s Whittaker and Roantree to launch fund group

Former New Star fund managers Stephen Whittaker and Phil Roantree have joined forces to launch a new boutique group, with a view to initially rolling out a hybrid equity and bond product.

Whittaker and Roantree, who together have about 50 years investment experience, plan to submit an application to the FSA by Christmas and could launch the new company as early as Q1 next year.

Roantree, the ex-New Star Sterling Bond fund manager, says the new fund is likely to be split 50/50 between equities and bonds, but this could change depending on market conditions at the launch date.

Whittaker, the former New Star CIO, left the group in November 2008 following a restructure of its UK equity team. He ran a number of funds at the John Duffield-led group, after previously spending over 15 years at the helm of the Invesco Perpetual UK Growth fund.

Roantree began running the Sterling Bond fund while at Prolific Asset Management in 1994, with the vehicle moving with the manager to Aberdeen in 1997, before another shift to New Star in 2003. He left the group earlier this year following its acquisition by Henderson.

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