Morningstar has slashed its analyst rating of the £381m Fidelity European Opportunities fund by dropping the rating from silver to neutral.
The fund had been placed under review when Fidelity announced that Alberto Chiandetti was taking over management from Colin Stone.
Mr Chiandetti has been managing the fund since October this year. He had gained most of his experience in the Italian market and also has responsibility for the €1.1bn (£872m) Fidelity Italy fund and the Chf395m (£260m) Fidelity Switzerland.
Jeremy Beckwith, director of manager research at Morningstar UK said this was Mr Chiandetti’s “first time running a European mandate”.
“Over a full market cycle, he has proven able to execute his process well at the helm of Fidelity Italy,” Mr Beckwith said.
“That said, his past results are not fully relevant for this product, given the differences in the investable universe and the opportunity set compared to the country funds. We have therefore assigned a neutral rating to reflect the uncertainties surrounding the future of this strategy.”
The fund has lost 1.4 per cent in the month to the end of October, in line with the benchmark FTSE World Europe ex-UK index.
Fidelity declined to comment.