Fund management boutique J O Hambro Capital Management is seeking to bolster its client roster in the U.K. with new hires and will expand into Continental Europe where it currently has few clients. "We will be broadening our business regionally but also our client mix," said Suzy Neubert, director of sales and marketing in London. She has recently joined from a Pan-European sales role at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers to drive the institutional business forward at J O Hambro.

The GBP3.2 billion manager will be targeting U.K. institutions and is set to hire two sales professionals in the next 12 months. One will cover the Southwest, while the other will cover the North. It has already approached the U.K.'s largest investment consultants, Neubert noted, and will also appoint a dedicated U.K. institutional sales manager to handle consultant relations. "Pension consultants are more willing to look at boutiques now as there is a constant search for alpha," she explained.

In Continental Europe, Neubert will focus on Switzerland and Scandinavia, while at least one more sales professional will be hired to handle Germany and Austria. She added that it is possible that the new recruit be based in situ as local presence "is important for the long-term development of a relationship" between a fund manager and its clients. This will allow the rest of the London-based team to focus on untapped markets, such as France and Italy. It is also seeking to appoint an investor relations manager. J O Hambro currently employs seven sales pros, including Neubert, and four marketing experts. It expects to grow the marketing and sales team by five or six in the next year.

Product-wise, the firm has 11 Open-Ended Investment Companies with various different strategies, which invest in U.K., European, Continental European, Japanese and U.S. equity. It also has hedge funds and private equity products. However, it does not have a global product, which recently seems to be in great demand from institutional clients, Neubert stated. The firm may consider providing this product in 12-14 months.

All of J O Hambro's funds are capped as this is an influential factor on fund performance, said Neubert. She did not say by how much the manager is seeking to grow, but noted that its OEIC funds still have a long way until they reach capacity. For example, its JOHCM European Select Values Fund is EUR188 million but has a maximum capacity of EUR1 billion.