Schroders keeps UK Growth trust after Dean’s exit

The board of the Schroder UK Growth investment trust will also drop the management fee from 0.6 per cent of its net assets to 0.5 per cent.

Schroders also agreed to waive the management fee in order to bear all costs that come with changing the lead manager.

Chairman of the board, Alan Clifton said: “The decision to remain with Schroders reflects the fact that they put forward a highly rated manager in Philip Matthews with an excellent and consistent investment process and performance record and a world class support team.

“We have also been impressed with Schroders’ commitment actively to promote the company and their strong desire to retain this mandate.

“This has been demonstrated by the proposed fee reduction and the offer to pay for all the costs of transition to ensure that this process will not have any adverse cost impact on our shareholders.”

The board of the Schroder UK Growth investment trust announced a ‘beauty parade’ of potential alternative managers on September 11, a few days after Ms Dean resigned from Schroders in a shock move.

Schroders’ Matt Hudson took temporary control of the trust after Ms Dean’s departure and has since been named permanent manager on her UK Opportunities fund.

Schroders faced tough competition to keep the trust, according to the chairman Alan Clifton.

There were a substantial number of bidders - in the double digits - and range of proposals, according to Mr Clifton.

Investors were keen for the beauty parade since the board had decided against one just over a year ago when its previous fund manager, Richard Buxton, left Schroders.

The board had then decided to leave the trust with Schroders since Ms Dean was a suitable replacement and had joined the firm around the same time as Mr Buxton’s departure.

However, the trust had underperformed its benchmark, the FTSE All-Share index, since Ms Dean took over the trust in July last year.