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SIG drops Aviva manager from line-up
Skandia Investment Group has dropped Julius Lipner of Aviva Investors from its £51.6m UK Strategic Best Ideas fund.
The announcement comes after Aviva announced plans to scale back its retail fund presence and shut its London-based European, emerging markets, global and sustainable responsible investments equity desks, with 160 job losses.
Lee Freeman-Shor, portfolio manager for SIG, said the announcement had created uncertainty on the consequences for the fund.
He said: “We have made the decision to remove the mandate from the fund due to the uncertainty and unknown consequences created by Aviva’s announcement that it plans to review active equity management and concentrate on fixed income, real estate and multi-asset solutions.
“While Mr Lipner has done a good job for the fund and we wish him all the best for the future, we believe that this decision is in the best interest of our investors.”
Mr Lipner’s £7m mandate will be equally distributed among the remaining managers in the fund.
The current manager line-up is Richard Plackett of BlackRock, Mark Lyttleton of BlackRock, Phil Hardy of Polar Capital, Colin McLean of SVM Asset Management, Tim Steer of Artemis and Paul Casson of Henderson.
