Neptune’s James Hackman is to leave the firm after just four months as head of US equities, Investment Adviser can reveal.
Mr Hackman, who joined the firm in April 2012, took over as head of US equities this May following the departure of longstanding predecessor Felix Wintle.
His exit is a blow to the fund house, which had attempted to recast its US range under Mr Hackman’s leadership.
The manager has run the top-performing £40m US Income fund since June 2014, and has begun to improve the performance of the £285m US Opportunities fund since taking over the portfolio from Mr Wintle in May.
Alongside co-manager Patrick Close, Mr Hackman introduced a new investment process to the portfolio, using a proprietary screening tool developed for the US Income fund which scored stocks on different quality metrics.
The asset manager appointed Robin Milway co-manager on the US Opps fund earlier this week, and has now confirmed Mr Hackman's departure.
Mr Milway, who joined from EFG Asset Management earlier this year as head of stock strategy, had originally been set to run a European portfolio for the firm. He and existing co-manager Patrick Close will continue to run US Opps in Mr Hackman's absence.
Neptune Global Income manager George Boyd-Bowman will now run the US Income fund. Mr Boyd-Bowman has been assistant manager on the fund since earlier in 2016.
Neptune said in a statement: “While we are disappointed that James Hackman has decided to pursue opportunities elsewhere, George Boyd-Bowman has established experience running dividend-growth focused mandates.”
The fund house's founder, Robin Geffen, will take over management of the non-US portion of the £8m Global Income fund.
