EuropeanApr 14 2014

Ken Nicholson resigns from Standard Life Investments

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Standard Life Investments (SLI) smaller companies manager Ken Nicholson has resigned from the firm, Investment Adviser can reveal.

Mr Nicholson resigned last week but will continue to manage his offshore Standard Life European Smaller Companies fund for a transition period of “at least a few months”, according to an SLI spokesperson.

The manager had been part of SLI’s smaller companies team, which is headed up by Harry Nimmo, since 2001.

The Luxembourg-domiciled European Smaller Companies fund has delivered a return of 224.3 per cent in the past five years, significantly outperforming its offshore peer group average return of 158.2 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics.

It has also comfortably beaten its peers for three and one year performance.

Morningstar said it had put its ‘bronze’ rating on the fund under review following the news of Mr Nicholson’s departure.

Morningstar analyst Ruli Viljoen said he had “valued [Mr Nicholson’s] joint collaboration with fund manager Harry Nimmo, head of the small-cap team, with whom he shared a similar process and investment philosophy.

“We will be monitoring the transition in the management of this fund during the coming months.”