US- American Skandia has hired Goldman Sachs Asset Management after firing Janus Capital Management as manager of a $2bn (e2bn) US large and mid cap equity mandate.

As of November, Goldman Sachs will run the large cap concentrated growth and mid cap growth domestic equity portfolios for the US unit of the Swedish financial group Skandia.

Janus has also lost American Skandia’s $523m international growth portfolio to William Blair & Company, the Chicago-based asset manager.

American Skandia, which offers multi manager funds, says it fired Janus for failing to meet benchmark returns.

American Skandia screened 485 large cap growth managers, 1,025 international equity managers and 762 mid cap growth managers before opting for Goldman Sachs and William Blair.

Michael Murray, chairman of American Skandia’s investment committee, said: “the growth investing strategy of the Goldman Sachs concentrated growth team, headed by Herb Ehlers, has a 21-year track record. And the William Blair international team has been led for over 5 years by George Greig who himself has over 23 years of investing experience.”

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