AXA Investment Management announced on Thursday that Nigel Thomas, its star fund manager ofAXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities, will retire in March 2019.
He will hand management of the fund, which had a Morningstar Silver Analyst Rating, to Chris St John. St John currently runs the AXA Framlington UK Mid Cap fund.
The Morningstar Analyst View By Simon Dorricott
When we look at active managers in the UK equity market, Nigel Thomas has had a long and successful career spanning over 30 years, handsomely rewarding investors who have stuck with him over time.
He took on the AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities fund in 2002 and, under his tenure, has returned an impressive 366% compared with 228% for the FTSE All Share index.
Chris St. John currently manages a mid-cap offering, AXA Framlington UK Mid Cap, and in 2016 the group launched the AXA WF Framlington UK fund for him. The aim being to provide him with experience and a track record managing an all-cap fund, in advance of him succeeding Thomas on Select Opportunities.
He has been allowed to pursue his own approach on that product and, although it is only a short period of time, he has succeeded in outperforming Thomas, albeit still slightly underperforming the FTSE All-Share Index and UK Flex-Cap category average.
We will be meeting with Chris St. John in the near future to more fully understand his investment approach and how he will adapt to UK Select Opportunities, which is considerably greater in size (£2.95 billion) than his current mandates.
In the meantime, the rating on Axa Framlington UK Select Opportunities is moved to Under Review.