The investment teams of KBSH Capital Management Inc. and Signature Global Advisors, both divisions of CI Financial Income Fund, are being combined for the purpose of managing KBSH institutional mandates, CI Investments Inc. announced on Monday.

Signature Global Advisors is an investment management team with 22 investment professionals managing about $18 billion. The team invests in a range of Canadian and global equity, balanced and fixed-income portfolios.

The combination will enhance the research efforts of KBSH, which manages more than $2 billion for a variety of institutional clients.

“This change provides KBSH mandates with the support of one of the largest and best-resourced investment teams in Canada,” said Bill Vieira, CEO of KBSH, in a statement. “Signature’s scale provides us with a much deeper research capability.”

The core KBSH mandates will not change, and will continue to be run by their current portfolio managers, Vieira added.

“This move demonstrates our commitment to KBSH, and is an important step in growing our institutional investment management business,” said Peter Anderson, CEO of CI Investments.

Vieira will continue to oversee all KBSH equity accounts as the firm’s chief investment officer, and will be supported by Stephen Carlin on the Canadian mandates.

Rui Cardoso will remain portfolio manager of the KBSH U.S. strategies, while contributing to the Signature funds as a health care specialist.

Drummond Brodeur, who joined Signature in July 2007 as an EAFE strategist, will be portfolio manager of KBSH’s EAFE accounts. Prior to joining Signature, Brodeur spent 11 years at KBSH as portfolio manager specializing in EAFE mandates.

Geoff Hollands will remain portfolio manager of the KBSH fixed-income strategies, while Craig Auwaerter will continue as head of sales and client service.

As part of these changes, several people, including president Doug MacDonald, will be leaving KBSH. The changes are effective immediately.