Putnam Investments, a former fund manager that has been mired in outflows since 2000, will see its biggest shake-up in years under moves announced Monday by its new chief executive, Bob Reynolds, who took the reins four months ago. Six equity funds will be merged; managers and analysts would be paid based on performance; 47 people would be laid off, including 12 portfolio managers out of a total 2,500 staff; and equities investing would be restructured, said Reynolds. Equities comprise 40% of Putnam’s assets under management and these funds have had the poorest performance and the biggest outflows. Reynolds ditched the team-based management of funds in favour of each fund being managed by one individual. Putnam’s had $116bn in assets under management at Oct 31 – a big fall from the high of $370bn in 2000. Last year, the group was sold by Marsh & McLennan to Canada’s Power Financial for $3.9bn.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 5:42 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with putnam. Edit this entry.