Emma Wall: Hello and welcome to the Morningstar Series ‘Ask The Expert’. I’m Emma Wall and I’m joined today by Simon Dorricott, Senior Fund Analyst for Morningstar.
Hi, Simon.
Simon Dorricott: Hi.
Wall: So we’re here today to talk about the departure of Leigh Harrison from Columbia Threadneedle. Just remind us the scope of Leigh’s role on the funds which will be affected please.
Dorricott: Okay. Well, Leigh’s Head of Equities at Threadneedle and more recently he returned to being Head of the U.K. team as well. That was after the departure of the previous head of U.K. Simon Brazier back in 2014. In terms of funds though he’s just responsible as Lead Manager for one retail fund at the moment which is the U.K. Equity Alpha Income fund.
Wall: Is that a fund that we rate?
Dorricott: It is, it has a Bronze rating at the moment and obviously with the news of his departure we have to look into that and the news is that Richard Colwell will be taking over the fund as of the end of June. And Richard is someone that we know quite well. He recently took over officially on the U.K. income fund which is a broader income mandate.
He’s really been running that since around 2012 in a more unofficial capacity with Leigh sitting as the name manager on that product. So as I say we’ve known him for quite some time within an income context and we’re quite happy that he is a capable and experienced manager himself. He’s been at Threadneedle since 2010, so he knows the team and he’s got an established process which we’re pretty happy with.
Wall: So what should investors in Leigh Harrison’s fund do now on this news that he is leaving the company.
Dorricott: Well as I say I think there is no need to panic at all with regard to the fund itself. It’s in capable hands with Richard taking over. He’s been very involved in this product in the past. So it’s very much going to be run and continue to be run as a subset of the broader income mandate. So a very few extra holdings in this portfolio don’t appear in the broader mandate. And it’s going to be continued to be run in exactly the same fashion in terms of reflecting the team’s best ideas in a bigger weighting essentially.
Wall: So despite the fact there has been quite a lot of change over the last two years, as you say, Leigh leaving and previously with Simon Brazier leaving to join Investec. Actually there is some continuity there within the team.
Dorricott: There is, in terms of the manager and there is a core, a good core in terms of the U.K. team of experienced investors. They are still reasonably well resourced with a team of 11 in total. We continue to be happy with that bronze rating.
Wall: Simon thank you very much.
Dorricott: Thank you.
Wall: This is Emma Wall for Morningstar. Thank you for watching.