Fund Times: 19 - 23 July

SWIP SICAV to be Wound Up; Barings Appoints Jim Chen to Head Hong Kong and China Team; Changes at Allianz RCM.

Alexander Prineas 23 July, 2010 | 3:10PM
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SWIP Appoints New UK Equities Investment Director
SWIP has appointed Jeremy Charles as Investment Director of UK Equities, based in their Edinburgh office. This appointment should help SWIP regain some stability, however we still think the group has significant challenges ahead given the large number of staff departures as reported last week here

SWIP SICAV to be Wound Up
The SWIP SICAV and all of its sub-funds will be wound up according the group’s Luxembourg website. The suite of six funds includes the SWIP Emerging Markets Smaller Companies, Emerging Markets Infrastructure, Latin America, European and European Absolute Return funds. We note that the head of emerging markets has resigned and will start with Edinburg-based competitor Martin Currie later in 2010. Several SWIP emerging markets team members will also move to Martin Currie.  SWIP did not disclose a reason for winding up the SICAV suite, although the departures may have been a factor, and we note that several of the funds appear to be trendy or faddish funds. We typically discourage investors from buying trendy funds due to the risk of underperformance or the funds being wound up when the fad passes.

Barings Appoints Jim Chen to Head Hong Kong and China Team
Barings Asset Management has appointed Jim Chen as manager of its Hong Kong China equities team, based in Hong Kong. Chen joins from Sumitomo Asset Management where was responsible for managing greater China funds, meaning his experience is relevant for his role at Barings.

Changes at Allianz RCM
Jeremy Thomas has been appointed as lead manager on the Allianz RCM UK Equity and UK Unconstrained funds, following the departure of Mark Lovett. The handover appears to be reasonably smooth as Lovett will not depart the group until October 2010. Thomas has been appointed manager already, while Matthew Tillet has been appointed co-manager. Meanwhile Vipin Ahuja has been appointed lead manager of the Allianz RCM Global Ecotrends fund following the promotion of existing manager Bozena Jankowska to global head of sustainability research. We never like to see manager turnover, but investors can at least take some comfort from the fact that the reason for the change was an internal move rather than a departure from the group.

Morningstar Qualitative Ratings and Reports Issued This Week
Morningstar issued new qualitative ratings and reports on a number of funds available to UK investors this week, including Gartmore European Select Opportunities, Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond and Fidelity Funds – European Larger Companies. Click here to see the full list. 

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About Author

Alexander Prineas  is an associate director of manager research for Morningstar Australasia.

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