Ignis Asset Management has confirmed that Argonaut Capital Partners is to become the latest joint venture to go it alone.

Argonaut - which has £1.1 billion in funds under management - is to be restructured with its management taking a 60 per cent stake in the company.

Ignis will reduce its stake from 50 per cent to 40 per cent, in a move designed to allow Argonaut to grow as an independent business.

Argonaut manages four funds: the Argonaut European Absolute Return, European Alpha, European Enhanced Income and European Income funds.

The Argonaut European Income fund is the largest fund managed by the asset manager, with a fund size of £410.2 million, followed by the Argonaut  European Alpha fund, with £287.1 million.

A chief operating officer is to be appointed to allow fund managers Barry Norris and Olly Russ to focus on investing.

Barry Norris, partner at Argonaut Capital Partners, said, 'We believe that this evolution of our business model from a joint venture to an independent entity is appropriate to Argonaut’s current stage of development. We look forward to making further announcements in due course.'

Argonaut is the latest joint venture to move away from Ignis, after Hexam moved to a similar ownership structure last year.

Ignis Partners retains a 50 per cent stake in Glasgow-based asset manager Cartesian.
 
Chris Samuel, chief executive of Ignis Asset Management, added, 'It is very much a part of our strategy to incubate our current joint ventures and then to transition them to an independent model when they reach an appropriate stage so as to best support their development and the services we provide to investors.'

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