Maltese-born to head prestigious fund management company

Maltese-born Philip Manduca has been appointed to head the alternative investment division at Morley Fund Management. This newly set up unit has assets of £2bn under fund management.

Mr Manduca is one of three Maltese brothers, all of whom are, or have been involved in fund management. Mr Manduca said that Morley was planning to start a fund of hedge funds for retail investors, bringing about economies of scale. His brother Paul is chief executive at Rotschild and is a member on the advisory council of the Malta Enterprise board. His other brother Frank has recently stepped down as fund manager at Gartmore.

He said that although hedge funds were now mostly closed for late comers, he still believed that Morley could get in.

Capacity constraints of the fund could be eased by new funds and investment strategies, according to Malcolm Le May, deputy chief executive and head of Morley’s European division.

Morley hopes to net returns of 12% from its new product. The firm is also planning to expand its equity business because of growing demand from European pension funds.