As my colleague Christopher Traulsen noted on Monday Ashton Bradbury is to step down from the day to day management of Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cap at the end of the year. He is to be replaced by Richard Watts who has been part of Bradbury's team since 2002. Meanwhile Dan Nickols, manager of Old Mutual UK Select Smaller Companies, will take over as head of the desk. Bradbury has moved upstairs after the departure of CIO Eoin Murray, and will take on the role of Head of Equities. For full detai
ls please see Monday’s article.
Causer, Read and Hoyland to Run New Invesco Perpetual European High Income Fund
Invesco Perpetual this week announced the launch of the Invesco Perpetual European High Income fund. The new fund will be jointly run by bond due Paul Causer and Paul Read, who are co-heads of fixed income at Invesco Perpetual, and European equity income specialist Katharina Hoyland, manager of the Invesco Perpetual European Equity Income fund. Causer and Read's Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond won the Morningstar Best Sterling Corporate Bond Fund Award 2008 earlier this year. European High Income launched on 1 May and has a target yield of 6%. To achieve this it will be fairly evenly split between bonds and equities.
Philbin Leaves F&C for Axa Multi-Manager Firm
Fund of Funds head Richard Philbin has this week announced his resignation from F&C. Philbin has quit the group to take on a position at a new, and yet unnamed, Investment Company backed by Axa. Philbin has been replaced by Dean Cheeseman, who was previously Head of Developed Markets at Forsyth Partners. Cheeseman joined F&C in December 2007 with 14 years of industry experience.
Yarrow Promoted to Lead Manager on Rathbone High Income
Hugh Yarrow has this week been officially promoted to lead manager on Rathbone’s High Income fund. Rathbone says Yarrow has been doing most of the day to day management of the fund for the last 18 months. Over this period he has been aided by Carl Stick and Julian Chillingworth – who will continue their support going forward. The fund has had a difficult time over the last year. It lost 19.14% in the period, nearly 8% more than its average Morningstar UK Large-Cap Value peer.
Ashby to Manage New Credit Suisse Global Income Plus Fund
Credit Suisse have this week launched the Global Income fund in an attempt to enhance their equity-income franchise. The fund will be managed by Graham Ashby and his colleagues Marcus Chandler and Mira Bhogaita, all of whom joined Credit Suisse last autumn. In keeping with Credit Suisse’s range of UK equity-income funds, stock selection will primarily be driven from a bottom-up perspective using a combination of quantitative screening tools and original fundamental analysis. The fund will have a focused portfolio of around 40-50 stocks, with broadly evenly weighted positions of between 1% and 3%.
Legg Mason Launch Two Global Income Funds
Legg Mason is to expand their fund range with the launch of the Global Equity Income and the Global Multi Strategy Bond fund’s, both of which will form part of the Legg Mason Funds ICVC family here in the UK. The funds are based on similar strategies currently run by Brandywine and Western Asset Management (WAM), who are both part of the wider Legg Mason group and will manage the offerings in the UK. The Global Equity Income fund will be run by Global Currents Investment Management (formally part of Brandywine) and target a yield of 4 per cent, focusing on dividend yield and high dividend growth potential, from a portfolio of 40-80 stocks. At Global Multi Strategy Bond, WAM will aim to uncover fixed income opportunities across a wide range of bonds, including government and investment grade bonds, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, high yield bonds and emerging market bonds.
