Three months after his mentor Anthony Bolton announced he was retiring from fund management, Fidelity fund manager Sanjeev Shah is also moving on.
Shah has run the Special Situations fund for the past five years, but will be stepping down to take on a new role within Fidelity's Portfolio Management Academy.
His successor is Alex Wright, who has been running the Fidelity UK Smaller Companies Fund for two years, currently ranked number one in its peer group.
The past five years have not been smooth sailing for Shah. When Bolton stood down in 2007, the flagship fund was split in two. One half retained the Special Situations name, but focused on UK holdings and was taken over by Shah, Bolton's protégé. Despite an impressive first year, when he returned 21%, Mr Shah's performance dwindled, posting negative figures for the next two years.
This lead Fidelity to drop the fund from its own “buy” list. Recently however, Shah’s performance had improved – returning 24% to investors so far this year, and 27% in 2012. Under Shah's managment the fund obtained a Morningstar OBSR Analyst Silver rating.
Analysts have now placed the fund on a Neutral rating. Morningstar OBSR analyst Richard Whitehall said: "While we have a high regard for Alex Wright as a small cap UK equity fund manager, we believe that taking over this £2.8 billion fund represents new challenges for him.
"Therefore we feel that a Neutral Rating is appropriate for the fund at this stage. We will continue to meet with Wright as he assumes his new responsibilities."
Bolton retired from the Fidelity China Special Situations fund in June this year. Before moving to Hong Kong to set up the China trust in 2010 Bolton had secured an unrivalled reputation as a UK fund manager. His 27 year tenure as head of the Fidelity Special Situations fund turned an investment of £1,000 into £148,200.
Dominic Rossi, global chief investment officer at Fidelity thanked Shah for his contribution to the firm and said he had delivered strong performance to investors in what had been an extremely challenging period for markets.