Phil Davidson is bringing on a portfolio management team from Lombardia Capital Management to add more international exposure to American Century's value strategy line-up.

Phil Davidson American Century CIO, Value Equity

Davidson, the CIO of value equities at American Century, says that he's currently got $43 billion in value assets spread across nine strategies. Until now, they were all US-focused.

That's where Alvin Polit, Bert Whitson, and Jonathan Veiga come in. They manage Lombardia's International Equity Value Portfolio, a strategy seeking long-term total returns through a value-focused investment process. Now, they're bringing it to American Century.

In a written statement, Vincent Williams, co-CEO at Lombardia, commented:

While Lombardia is disappointed the IEV team will be seeking another opportunity, we are happy we provided them a platform where they could achieve an outstanding performance track record that made them an attractive target. We are most pleased that the team, Lombardia, and American Century will provide clients a long transition period, even after the April 10th start date. We expect to share more details in a joint statement later in the week.

On the American Century side, luck played somewhat of a factor in bringing the new hires on board, explains Davidson.

"To run across a team of this quality in something that ... helps us have a fuller suite of value offerings is like a dream come true," Davidson tells MFWire.

American Century doesn't typically execute liftouts as a way to fill gaps in their strategies. In fact, Davidson estimates that 80 percent of the 24 person value equity team has been internally developed.

With the three new hires, the team will grow to 27. Polit joins AIC as vice president and senior portfolio manager and both Whitson and Veiga join as senior investment analysts. The trio starts with American Century on April 10 and will work out of Los Angeles. 

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