Schroders has lost the mandate to manage the £303m Schroders UK Growth trust to Baillie Gifford
Several high profile UK equity managers have run the trust for Schroders in the past, including Richard Buxton and Julie Dean, both of whom left the firm for rivals.
Philip Matthews has been managing it since 2014 but the trust's performance has been poor over the past three years, returning 14 per cent compared with 25 per cent for the average trust in the AIC UK All Companies sector in the same time period.
Carolan Dobson, the trust's chairman, said: "The board is committed to providing investors with exposure to a high-quality portfolio of UK stocks that have the potential to deliver significant outperformance over the long term and we believe that Baillie Gifford is the right manager to take the company forwards.
"With its long-term, bottom-up approach, Baillie Gifford has a proven track record in managing UK equities."
Although the trust's investment objective and policy will not change, Baillie Gifford will realign the portfolio to invest in a bespoke, "best ideas" portfolio, with around 40 UK-focused, high growth stocks.
Baillie Gifford has appointed Iain McCombie and Milena Mileva, who are members of the firm's UK equity team, to manage the trust.
It will be paid an annual management fee of 0.5 per cent on the value of the trust's net asset value, though it has agreed to waive its management fee for the first six months.
Unlike open-ended funds, investment trusts are overseen by independent boards of directors, distinct from the investment manager, who have the power to move the trust to different fund management company if performance if deemed inadequate.
Baillie Gifford’s wider UK equity team manage assets of £5.8bn.
The trust will change its name to Baillie Gifford UK Growth Trust.
david.thorpe@ft.com
