Henderson Departures Leave McQuaker Holding the Multi-Manager Baby
Multi-managers Mark Harris and Craig Heron have departed Henderson Global Investors as part of the asset manager’s move to merge its multi-manager funds.
The three regional multi-manager funds previously run by the Harris-Heron duo, the Henderson American Portfolio, Henderson Asia Portfolio and Henderson European Portfolio, will be merged into their equivalent regional non-multi-manager funds, Henderson North American Enhanced Equity (managed by Robert Villiers), Henderson Asia Pacific Capital Growth (managed by Andrew Beal) and Henderson European Growth (managed by Richard Pease), respectively.
In addition, the multi-manager tactical and balanced funds previously managed by Harris and Heron will be merged into the active and managed funds run by Bill McQuaker, who is simultaneously taking on the role of Head of Multi-Manager in addition to his existing role as Deputy Head of Equities. The Henderson Cautious Portfolio unit trust, also previously managed by Heron, is due to merge into the Multi-Manager Income and Growth portfolio from later on this month. The other merger proposals are subject to shareholder approval and if successful are expected to go ahead by mid-May.
Fund analysts at OBSR, a Morningstar company, have subsequently removed the Henderson Multi-Manager Tactical fund and the Henderson Multi-Manager Balanced fund from their Fund Ratings Service.
The reshuffle at Henderson, which last month confirmed its purchase of Gartmore, provides an opportunity for the asset manager to focus its multi-manager efforts, according to McQuaker: “The primary focus for the six-strong Henderson multi-manager team will be on what we believe are the key sectors for multi-manager funds; active, balanced and cautious managed.”
While our fund analysts have a high regard for Bill McQuaker and the remaining team at Henderson, given the changes that have taken place they have suspended OBSR’s A rating of the Multi-Manager Active fund until they have discussed the implications of some of the changes in more detail with the new manager.
JPMorgan: Probably the Lowest-Cost Active Manager
JPMorgan Asset Management announced on Wednesday it is replacing its JPM UK Active 350 fund with its new JPM UK Active Index Plus fund, which carries a maximum total expense ratio of 0.55%. JPM described the new offering as “possibly the UK’s first low-cost, actively managed, open-ended investment solution”.
The asset manager’s Head of UK Retail Sales Jasper Berens said the new fund aims to compete with the low-cost offerings that are currently dominated by passive tracker funds. “Passive tracker funds are not designed to outperform their respective indices and are therefore unlikely to do so. However, the JPM UK Active Index Plus Fund offers investors the best of both worlds – a cost effective and competitive base fee but with the potential to outperform the index via active management.”
The fund, which officially took over from its predecessor on Tuesday of this week following a successful vote at the company’s EGM, will seek to outperform the FTSE All-Share index, against which it is benchmarked.
Commenting separately on recent developments that have led to downward pressure on fund fees, Tom Rampulla, managing director of Vanguard UK, said this can only be a good thing for the end investor. “We believe that the move by some active management houses toward lower costs is the first indication of the positive changes that RDR could make,” he commented, adding that he believes passive funds such as those offered by Vanguard will still have a significant cost advantage over their active counterparts but that UK investors can only benefit from active managers’ attempts to narrow the gap.
RBS Launches Volatility-Conscious Cautious and Balanced Funds
Royal Bank of Scotland has launched two new funds this week—a cautious fund and a balanced fund, but in what would seem to be response to recent criticism of such monikers, the asset manager said it will be keeping a close eye on volatility.
The RBS Volatility Controlled Cautious fund will be run with the aim of limiting volatility to 10%, while the Volatility Controlled Balanced Managed fund aims to restrict volatility to between 10% and 15%.
The funds will carry a maximum initial charge of 4% and a maximum annual management charge of 1%, depending on adviser commission, though RBS said charges were flexible thus allowing fee-based advisers to offer the fund with zero initial charge and an annual charge of between 0.25% and 0.5%.
Both funds will invest in 11 indices, including the FTSE 100 Total Return Index, the S&P 500 Total Return Index, and the EuroStoxx 50 Total Return Index, and will also hold property, bonds and commodities.
BNY Mellon Provides Insight into Absolute Returns
BNY Mellon Asset Management has launched its first offering to be managed by Insight Investment, the boutique that it bought from Lloyds in August 2009. The Dublin-domiciled BNY Mellon Absolute Return Equity fund is a Dublin-domiciled long/short strategy that invests in European equities and targets positive absolute returns of 6%-8% more than LIBOR p.a., irrelevant of market conditions.
BNY Mellon already manages several absolute return funds but this is only the second of its type to be run by Insight Investment, the first being the Absolute Insight UK Equity Market Neutral strategy.
Volatility is obviously on BNY Mellon’s mind as well, as Head of International Distribution Paul Feeney says this latest offering, which is UCITS III compliant, is suitable for both retail and institutional investors, whereas others are deemed too volatile for the retail sector.
Fidelity Sees Opportunities in the Unloved
Fidelity International is to launch a new UK equity fund, UK Opportunities, to invest primarily in small cap companies with unrecognised growth potential. Fund manager Alex Wright, who has run an institutional version of the fund since 2008, will look to invest in companies that are unloved and where he believes further downside is both quantifiable and limited. Wright will be able to invest at least 80% of the fund’s assets in smaller companies because that is where he finds the most opportunities with the risk/return characteristics he is looking for, while the remaining 20% can be used to purchase mid- and larger-cap companies.
UBS Confirms Whispers of New GEM Fund
UBS this week confirmed it soft-launched a Global Emerging Markets Growth fund back in October 2010 but does not intend on actively marketing it to individual investors.
The fund is managed by a team—based in San Diego and led by Vincent Willyard—that UBS hired from Nicholas Applegate Capital Management in 2007. However, the day-to-day management of the GEM Growth fund’s portfolio will be down to UBS senior equity portfolio manager Joe Devine.
Deutsche Bank and Traxis Launch UCITS Fund
Deutsche Bank and Traxis Partners this week launched a UCITS compliant version of the Traxis Global Equity Macro fund. The DB Platinum Traxis Global Equity Macro will be managed by Traxis in accordance with the strategy managed by Barton Biggs in a similar way to the Traxis Global Equity Macro fund, modified where needed to comply with UCITS regulations.
NFU Mutual Appoints Paul Glover as Chief Investment Manager
The insurance, pensions and investments specialist announced this week that as of January 1, 2011, Paul Glover is Chief Investment Manager. Glover has been Acting CIM since April of last year and will continue to head up the 18-strong investment team at NFU Mutual, which as at end-2010 had more than £12 billion in assets under management.
HSBC Hires New Head of Emerging Markets Debt from PIMCO
Guillermo Osses, formerly emerging markets portfolio manager at PIMCO, is to join HSBC Global Asset Management as Head of Emerging Markets Debt Portfolio Management. Osses’ leadership of the New York-based emerging markets debt team will also see him run several emerging markets debt products including the GIF Global Emerging Markets Local Debt and the GIF Global Emerging Markets Bond funds.
All Change at F&C Asset Management
After weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, activist shareholder Sherborne has this week succeeded in its boardroom battle for control of F&C Asset Management and following an EGM has now instated three new members to the F&C board to replace ousted Chairman NickMacAndrew and board member Brian Larcombe.
BlackRock, State Street and UBS Top of the Pops for Nest
The UK’s National Employment Savings Trust (Nest), a national pensions shceme set to come into effect next year, has selected funds from BlackRock’s Aquila range to cover its cash and diversified beta mandate, State Street Global Advisors to manage the UK gilts and index-linked offerings, and UBS to run the global equity directive. All are passively-managed investments in order to keep costs to a minimum.
