Kames Capital’s Stephen Jones has insisted the “rejuvenation” of the firm’s global equity funds will not be damaged by the departure of Piers Hillier.
Mr Hillier, who had presided over a significant turnaround in the fortunes of Kames’s global equity franchise in the two years since he joined in March 2012, recently departed to take up the chief investment officer role at Royal London.
But Mr Jones, chief investment officer at Kames, said the turnaround was not solely down to Mr Hillier and heaped praise on the remaining members of the equity team.
He pointed out that the progress made on a recovery in Kames’s equity funds has been “embedded” for more than three years, since before Mr Hillier joined.
He said Pauline McPherson, who has been co-managing the Kames Global Equity fund since before Mr Hillier joined, had been doing a “great job”, as had Mark Peden on the Kames Global Equity Income fund.
The Global Equity fund was perennially on lists of the worst funds, along with a number of other Kames equity products, but it is in the top quartile for performance in the past one and three years.
Mr Jones said the 10-strong international equities team had grown and been strengthened during Mr Hillier’s tenure, including the hiring of Neil Goddin, who takes over on the Global Equity fund.
Therefore, he said he did not think replacing Mr Hillier would be necessary.
