Ignis bags Soros hedge fund man as fixed income head

Ignis Asset Management chief executive has described the hire of Chris Fellingham from George Soros' hedge fund company as a 'major coup' after he was installed as the fixed income head.

Fellingham will join the Ignis board and take overall responsibility for running around £50 billion in credit assets as the chief investment officer of fixed income. Peter Reid, meanwhile, remains CIO for all the other asset classes.

Fellingham joined Soros' London based asset management business in 2008 but over the past two decades has worked as the head of several fixed income teams, including Royal Insurance and Blackrock.

Ignis chief executive Chris Samuel said: 'Chris’ appointment is obviously a major coup. His experience and input will be invaluable to the business. This is another major step towards ensuring that we have the investment and management talent to deliver on our aspirations. We have ambitious plans and 2010 will be a year of significant investment in building both our investment capability and the Ignis brand.'

Fellingham added: 'My key focus will be on accelerating the development of Ignis’ Fixed Income capability and increasing the attractiveness of our proposition to investors. Ignis has a great reputation in Fixed Interest investment and the focus of the team will be to further enhance this.'