Morrell cuts direct property funds

HSBC Global Asset Management’s Guy Morrell has cut back holdings in direct property funds and built up the cash weighting in his £58.5m HSBC Open Global Property fund.

The move reflects the manager’s longer-term bias towards property equities, which has seen Mr Morrell cut back steadily on direct property funds in recent months.

According to the fund’s latest factsheet, the manager increased his cash weighting to 6.6 per cent at the end of April from 4.5 per cent a month earlier, after taking money out of direct property funds. Exposure to these products now amounts to a little less than a third of the portfolio.