Fund Times: 9 - 13 June
Baillie Gifford Adds New Talent to Japanese Equity Team; Invesco Perpetual Veteran Ed Burke Steps Down; Morningstar Release Further Fund Reviews; Further Additions at Standard Life Investments USA; Investec to Manage Sharia-Compliant African Equity Fund for Saudi Market and New Star Replaces Toby Thompson with Trevor Green on New Star Managed Distribution.
Baillie Gifford & Co has appointed Donald Farquharson as a new investment manager in its Japanese equity team. Faruqharson worked as part of Schroder's Japanese equity team for 17 years, and headed the firm's research effort in Tokyo. He also later managed the Schroder Japan Growth fund Plc, with mediocre results. In another change, Baillie Gifford named Matthew Brett to replace John McDougall as co-manager of Baillie Gifford Overseas Growth. Current lead manager Sarah Whitely remains at the helm. McDougall will continue to co-manage the Baillie Gifford Japanese Smaller Companies fund.
Invesco Perpetual Veteran Ed Burke Steps Down
Ed Burke has stepped down from day-to-day fund management, instigating a reorganisation of the funds he managed. The Invesco Perpetual UK Aggressive fund will now be taken over by Stephen Anness, who has been working closely with Neil Woodford and Ed Burke in the UK equity team since 2002. Anness also manages the UK equity components of Pan-European mandates and the Invesco Perpetual Select Trust Plc.
Invesco Perpetual UK Growth , Invesco UK Equity , and the UK equity component of Invesco Perpetual International Equity will now be managed by Martin Walker. Walker joined Invesco nine years ago and currently manages a range of funds that includes Invesco Perpetual Children’s Fund , Invesco Perpetual UK Opportunities and Invesco Perpetual UK Focus . In four years at the helm of the former two, he has bested his Morningstar UK Large-Cap Value Equity category peers by 3.35 and 2.85 percentage points, respectively. During his year-long tenure at UK Focus, he has just edged past his average rival in the Morningstar UK Mid-Cap Equity category.
Invesco has also announced its plans to rationalise its UK equities range in the wake of Burke's departure. Subject to FSA and shareholder approval, the firm aims to merge Invesco Perpetual UK Opportunities into Invesco Perpetual UK Growth, and to merge UK Focus into UK Aggressive.
Morningstar Release Further Fund Reviews
Morningstar released four fund reviews by its research analysts, spanning the UK, U.S. and Asian equity categories. Morningstar analyst Tom Whitelaw has found appeal in Aberdeen American Growth
(analysis) and Aberdeen Asia Pacific & Japan (analysis), but was less enthused by Insight UK Alpha (analysis). Meanwhile, Chetan Modi took a look at the significance of the underperformance at Rensburg UK Select Growth Trust (analysis).
Further Additions at Standard Life Investments USA
Standard Life Investments USA has added Kenneth Murphy to its Boston based US equity team. Murphy was previously part of the US equity analyst team at struggling Putnam Investments. Murphy will serve as an analyst on the consumer sector, and will also manage a portfolio that is benchmarked against the S&P 500. The team’s total assets under management stood at $7bn, as at the last quarter-end.
Investec to Manage Sharia-Compliant African Equity Fund for Saudi Market
Investec Asset Management has announced this week a partnership with a Sharia-Compliant investment provider in Saudi Arabia, Jadwa Investment, through which Investec will manage their Jadwa Africa Equity Freestyle Fund. The fund will invest in African listed companies and will be available for sale in the cash-rich Saudi market.
New Star Replaces Toby Thompson with Trevor Green on New Star Managed Distribution
Trevor Green will take over for Toby Thompson on the equity portion of New Star Managed Distribution on 16 June 2008. Green joined New Star in early June 2008 from RCM (UK) Ltd. where he was Director of UK and European equities and manager of the RCM UK Growth , RCM UK High Alpha and RCM UK Mid-Cap funds. His performance there was mixed: Green outperformed his peers in the Morningstar UK Mid-Cap category by 3.5 percentage points per annum for the six years he was running the UK Mid-Cap fund, but trailed his peers in the Morningstar UK Large-Cap Blend and UK Large-Cap Growth categories at UK High Alpha and UK Growth, respectively.