Henderson CEO Yates to Step Down

Firm announces new CEO, plans to escape UK tax regime.

Morningstar Analysts | 28-08-08 | E-mail Article

In its interim results today, Henderson said that current CEO Roger Yates will step down on 4 November. Yates will be replaced by current head of equities Andrew Formica. Formica has been with the company since 1998.

The announcement comes just as Henderson has seen a sharp drop in profits year-over-year, reporting just £41.2m in after-tax profits for the first half of 2008, compared to £89.5 million for the same period in 2007. In keeping with the market decline, Henderson's assets under management fell during the period, from £61.6bn to £52.6bn. The group's funds saw net inflows of £1.3bn in the period, but its business with closed life funds manager Pearl experienced outflows of £4.8 billion. The group continues to manage £14.1bn in assets for Pearl, but Pearl has stated its intention to withdraw a further £6.3bn of that--12% of the group's total AUM. If fees from Pearl fall below a certain threshold, however, the firm has agreed to compensate Henderson for the shortfall through 2015.

The firm has also announced that it is planning to create a new parent company for Henderson that will be tax-resident in Ireland. The move, which will be put to a shareholder vote on 30 September, highlights the trouble the UK is having in keeping its tax scheme competitive with other locales.

Fund investors may wish to note that Henderson's average fee margin on its assets rose to 43.2bps from 41.7bps in the year earlier period. Henderson attributed this directly to a continued shift of its asset base towards "higher margin" business, which includes its UK fund range, in contrast to its "lower margin" institutional business. That reflects a lack of negotiating power and protection against high fees among individual fund owners. Henderson raised its management fees on many of these funds significantly in 2006, from 1.25% to 1.5%.

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