Major fund houses suffer outflows after resignations
Big-name manager moves have coincided with three major fund houses falling to the bottom of the 2014 inflow rankings, a report by Capital City Media shows.
The report showed Invesco Perpetual, Baring Asset Management and Schroders suffered the highest levels of outflows last year, putting the trio at the bottom of the 95-strong table for total retail and institutional funds under management in the UK.
All three firms were hit by major manager departures, with Invesco Perpetual suffering further outflows after Neil Woodford had outlined plans for his new business.
The report showed the Henley-based asset manager suffered nearly £1.9bn in outflows, judging by its assets under management (AUM) in December 2013 compared with a year later.
Funds such as Paul Causer and Paul Read’s £3.2bn Distribution fund have continued to attract assets, which will have helped the group, as well as Mark Barnett’s strong performance.
Mr Barnett has delivered top-quartile performance on the £6.8bn Income fund since he took it on in March last year.
Barings has endured outflows after the head of its multi-asset team, Percival Stanion, left the group with two other members – Andrew Cole and Shaniel Ramjee – to join rival Pictet.
The group’s retail multi-asset fund was roughly £1bn in size, but since the team’s departure it has shrunk to just less than £300m, according to data from FE Analytics.
The group is hoping to revive its fortunes in the multi-asset space, though. It has converted its multi-asset £39.2m Baring Portfolio fund into the Baring Dynamic Capital Growth fund and relaunched it to target “members of pension schemes that fall under the new auto-enrolment legislation”.
The Capital City Media report suggested the group lost just more than £1.4bn in 2014.
Schroders was also the victim of a shock fund manager departure after UK equity star Julie Dean quit the firm to join some of her former Cazenove colleagues at Sanditon Asset Management.
Ms Dean had moved across to Schroders with her UK Opportunities fund when it bought Cazenove and had taken on the UK Growth investment trust at the group.
Matt Hudson, who was previously with Cazenove, has now taken on the fund.
Capital City Media used data from the Investment Association to demonstrate how funds under management at fund groups had changed.
The report showed the UK Equity Income sector was the biggest seller throughout 2014, driven no doubt by Mr Woodford’s fund, which now has £4.7bn.
Invesco Perpetual had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.
A Schroders spokesperson said the company could not comment as it was in a closed period, with its results due on March 5.
Barings declined to comment.
