Ninety OneApr 21 2020

Temple Bar reviews Ninety One management

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Temple Bar reviews Ninety One management
Alastair Mundy, head of the value team and fund manager at Ninety One

The board of the Temple Bar Investment Trust is to review the future management of the mandate in light of Alastair Mundy’s leave of absence from Ninety One.

In an update to the stock exchange this morning (April 21), the board said it was “appropriate to conduct a review of the future management arrangements of the trust…[and] it is prudent to service protective notice on Ninety One”.

Ninety One has a 12-month notice period for managing the trust so will be at the helm for at least a year, but the board may still decide to keep the newly formed fund house as manager of the trust.

The board said: “[We do] not wish to pre-empt the results of such review and it is certainly possible that the existing management arrangements will be maintained.”

Investec (now Ninety One), and Mr Mundy, have managed the trust since 2002.

But last week Ninety One announced the veteran fund manager was to take an extended leave of absence from the firm for non coronavirus-related health reasons.

His portfolio management responsibilities across the Cautious Managed, UK Special Situations and UK Total Return funds — as well as his Temple Bar Investment Trust — have been assumed by Alessandro Dicorrado and Steve Woolley.

Mr Dicorrado and Mr Woolley will become co-managers of these portfolios alongside the Global Special Situations fund which they have jointly managed since January 2016.

The pair is part of Ninety One’s eight-strong value team and have worked closely with Mr Mundy for many years. Ninety One confirmed the investment strategy and objective of the portfolios remained unchanged.

At the time, Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre, said the funds had been placed in “good hands”.

Ninety One is the asset management arm recently spun out of Investec.

imogen.tew@ft.com

What do you think about the issues raised by this story? Email us on fa.letters@ft.com to let us know.