Black and Blue at Janus Capital

Gary Black's makeover at Janus Capital claimed another victim, as veteran David Corkins gives up the reins at the flagship Janus fund and moves on:

Corkins' departure, which is expected to be announced today, is the latest blow for Denver-based Janus. The company, set to lose star stock picker Scott Schoelzel at the end of the year, has lost about half of its fund managers since early 2006.

Janus spokeswoman Shelley Peterson, reached Thursday night, declined to comment.

The instability comes at a time when Janus is in the middle of a comeback. Janus Capital stock is flying high, and its portfolios are delivering strong returns while starting - finally - to win back investors. Sales of its core stock and bond funds surpassed withdrawals earlier in 2007 for the first time in about six years.

Corkins, who joined Janus in 1995 with a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Columbia University, took over the $12.62 billion Janus Fund in February 2006. He succeeded longtime manager Blaine Rollins, who left the company. Rocky Mountain News

Clearly Gary Black has a broad mandate at the firm to do as he sees fit. The tensions in Janus' Denver hallways has likely been palpable as Black eliminates the old guard at the firm. Perhaps Corkins grew tired of Gary Black's hardball tactics. As we noted in August:

It sounds like Gary is forcing tough love on the Janus portfolio managers, cutting compensation and maybe even invalidating employment contracts. And those are the folks that still work there. The list of departures seems to grow day by day. 8.23.07

WIth performance at the fund complex back on track, and inflows into growth funds beginning to pick up as investors rotate out of value funds, perhaps Black decided he had the wind at his back. Of course, the new managers had better perform of Black will eventually find himself on the hotseat. But for better or worse, Janus is now his firm.

How much longer can Jim Goff last?

Janus loses another stock picker
Rocky Mountain News
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