Manager Changes at Premier and Baillie Gifford

New skippers at Premier Dividend and Baillie Gifford Income.

Muna Abu-Habsa | 29-08-08 | E-mail Article

Premier Asset Management has poached Chris Wright from Thames River to replace Paul Branigan on Premier Dividend fund. Branigan will shift his focus to his current role as Chief Investment Officer, though he will also maintain management of Premier Absolute Growth. At Thames River, Wright’s focus was Pan-European stocks and derivatives. Previously, he worked on the sell-side at Collins Stewart and ABN Amro and managed the UK Equity portfolio of the BA Pension fund. The Dividend fund has been launched since 1985 and its long-term record is quite poor. In the last 10 years, the fund’s annualised returns were 1.9% and it lagged its average peer in the Morningstar UK Large-Cap Value Equity category by 1.46 percentage points each year.

At Baillie Gifford, Andrew Millington, manager of the Baillie Gifford Income fund, has been replaced with Patrick Edwardson. Millington will be leaving the firm having worked there for four years. Edwardson is a Partner in the firm and a long-serving member of Baillie Gifford’s investment team. He is a senior member of the UK equity team and worked closely with Millington in the last year. The fund has struggled in the last three years relative to its peers Morningstar UK Large-Cap Value Equity category, and also in absolute terms – the fund shed 0.8% of its value each year on an annualised basis compared with a gain of 1.9% for its average category rival.

Muna Abu-Habsa is a Fund Analyst with Morningstar UK. You can contact the author via this feedback form.
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