11 Employees from B of A Asset Manager Jump Ship to Form a Rival Bond

Eleven employees from Bank of America Corp.'s Sovran Capital Management unit have left to start a money management firm -- Agincourt Capital Management LLC in Richmond, Va.

Brad Coats, who was president of Sovran, is now Agincourt's president. Joining him as managing directors are Duncan Buoyer, Pat Kelly, and Patrick O'Hara, all senior portfolio managers at Richmond-based Sovran.

At the old company, they managed about $5 billion in bond assets for institutions. Bank of America spokesman Chris Schildz would not comment on how much of those assets are left. "Sovran Capital Management is still in business serving client needs," he said.

Mr. Schildz also would not say how many people are working at Sovran. Mr. Coats said two of the original Sovran team remains. Sovran, formerly a unit of C&S Sovran Corp., merged with NationsBank Corp., one of Bank of America's predecessors, in 1991.

Mr. Coats would not specify how much money Agincourt is managing, but did say "prospective client response has been overwhelming. We are already a substantial firm."

The Agincourt team left Bank of America on Wednesday on the heels of last month's reorganization, in which the Charlotte, N.C., bank consolidated its money management subsidiaries into a single unit. "Our clients didn't want to be combined into a large multiproduct organization," Mr. Coats said.

Mr. Coats and his colleagues talked with Bank of America about buying Sovran, but the two sides could not agree, he said.