Putnam Investments - A specialist approach

Putnam Investments is in the business of managing portfolios, but, curiously, it doesn't employ any portfolio managers. Instead, the firm has built a team of specialists that focus on specific sectors. Matthew Attwood talks to two lynchpins of the fixed-income desk, Bill Kohli and Rob Bloemker, about how this unique structure might enable Putnam to navigate the credit market's stormy seas

With $4 billion in assets under management, a consistent history of outperformance of its benchmark - 2007 notwithstanding - and £500 million of inflows in Europe already this year, Putnam's fixed-income strategy provides some rare good cheer in these troubled times. The firm says a further $3.7 billion is due to be added to the total in the Core Global and Global Alpha strategies. Across the firm as a whole and not just in the dedicated fixed-income strategy, there are $69 billion of fixed