Janus to lose 3 managers, 2 of whom oversee top performers Mon May 13, 2013 1:28pm EDT (Reuters) - Janus Capital Group is losing three portfolio managers, two who have been overseeing top-performing funds and one who has been overseeing two underperforming funds. Janus (JNS.N) said on Monday that Chad Meade and Brian Schaub, co-managers of Janus Venture Fund (JAVTX.O) and Janus Triton Fund (JGMAX.O), will leave in coming weeks after handing off the portfolios. Both funds are among Janus' best performers, beating 92 and 91 percent of peers over the three-year period ended April 30, according to data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper unit. Janus (JNS.N) also said Ron Sachs, head of its Janus Twenty Fund (JAVLX.O) and the Janus Forty Fund (JARTX.O), will depart at the end of May. Those two funds have among the poorest records in Janus' lineup, trailing 94 and 90 percent of peers, respectively, during the same three-year period, Lipper data show. Both funds did better in the 12 months ended April 30. Janus did not give reasons for the departures in a press release. None of the three departing fund managers returned messages, and a spokeswoman for the company said executives were not available for interviews, including Chief Executive Richard Weil. The changes come at a time of transition for the Denver-based asset manager. Janus is best known for its actively managed funds, but has reported quarterly outflows for years as customers pull money from portfolios with mixed performance records. Since taking over Janus in 2010, Weil has focused on adding new products and personnel. He has not made many dramatic moves among fund managers to date. Sachs' portfolios took concentrated positions. At the end of March, Twenty Fund had $8.5 billion in assets under management, and Forty Fund had $3.6 billion. The two funds that Meade and Schaub oversaw both invested in smaller companies. Triton Fund had $4.8 billion under management at the end of March, and Venture Fund had $2.2 billion. Janus said it had hired Doug Rao, a former Marsico Capital Management portfolio manager, to replace Sachs on the Forty Fund. It is filling the other positions internally, the company said. Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Leslie Adler