Scout Investments [see profile] is preparing to add to its mutual fund roster. The Kansas City-based firm plans to roll out the Scout Global Equity Fund [SEC filing] by end-June, company executives told The MFWire.com. Meanwhile, Scout has also recently made some hires for the sales and investment teams.

Scout's current lineup consists of five equity and two fixed income funds.

The upcoming product launch comes on the heels of a series of key developments at Scout over the last nine months.

Last summer, Scout installed Andy Iseman as CEO and David Lubchenco as head of distribution. Shortly after, the firm bought fixed-income specialiast Reams Asset Management and this year, acquired two bond mutual funds from Frontegra Asset Management that were sub-advised by Reams.

At the end of 2010, Scout changed its name from Scout Investment Advisors to Scout Investments.

In a recent interview with The MFWire.com, Iseman said that for 2011, Scout will be "executing on the strategy we laid out, including establishing the Scout Investments brand in the marketplace, diversifying our product set and transforming the distribution model."

Additional acquisitions are not a priority, but Iseman is not ruling them out. "We will certainly opportunistically look at acquisitions, but our focus in 2011 is to concentrate on the expertise we have."

Meanwhile, Scout, which has historically focused on the RIA channel, is broadening its distribution efforts.

Lubchenco recently hired an SVP of institutional client services and a West Coast institutional business development vice president. The appointments bring the number of institutional business development staffers to three.

"We have one more hire budgeted for the institutional side," Lubchenco said. The position will be an internal one.

Also during the first quarter, Scout brought in Michael Hedstrom to run marketing and on the investment side, the firm made three hires.

Scout Investments counts a total of 110 employees, 70 of whom work at Scout and the rest at Reams. 

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