Nigel Thomas, who has run the £2.95bn Axa Framlington UK Select Opportunities fund for more than two decades, is to retire at the end of March 2019.
Mr Thomas' fund has returned 778 per cent since 1995, compared with 428 per cent for the average fund in the IA UK All Companies sector in the same time period.
A significant chunk of this performance came as a result of his not investing in banks prior to the financial crisis. Mr Thomas has generally avoided bank shares throughout his career, describing them as “hyper cyclical, hyper leveraged and generally badly managed”.
His successor on the fund is Chris St John, already an employee of Axa. He will become lead manager of the fund on 31 December 2018.
Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services said he has had client cash placed with Mr Thomas’s fund for many years and the returns have been excellent.
He added he will continue to recommend the fund as he has met the new manager on numerous occasions and has been impressed.
Mr Thomas said: ““I have worked with Chris St John for 13 years and we have very similar investment styles; he and the wider UK equities team have contributed a huge amount to the idea generation that I have implemented as I managed the UK Select Opportunities fund.
"Chris’s experience investing in UK small and mid-cap companies is particularly relevant as he takes the lead on this fund later this year - these areas have been an important source of alpha generation for the UK Select Opportunities fund, with currently over 50 per cent of the fund invested in these areas of the market.
“I have 70 per cent of my self-invested personal pension in the fund and plan to keep it there - testament to my faith in Chris to continue to deliver superior returns for clients.
"As I always say, ‘things will not necessarily get better or worse – they will become different’, and I am very much looking forward to the next chapter.”
David.Thorpe@ft.com
