Veteran fund manager Giles Hargreave is set to step down from the helm of the Marlborough small-cap fund range after nearly 22 years in the industry.
Marlborough Fund Managers announced today (May 14) Mr Hargreave would no longer be named co-manager on the funds as of January 2021, but said he would continue to play a “central role” in the running of the three strategies.
Mr Hargreave has run the Marlborough Special Situations fund since 1998, and co-managed the UK Micro-Cap Growth and Nano-Cap Growth funds since 2004 and 2013 respectively.
Mr Hargeave’s long-established co-managers Eustace Santa Barbara and Guy Feld will be the sole named co-managers of all three funds from January 2021. Marlborough said Mr Hargreave would continue to lead weekly investment meetings and work closely with the pair.
Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre, labelled Mr Hargreave the best performing UK small cap manager of the 21st century, having beaten his peers in the IA UK Smaller Companies sector in terms of total returns over the past two decades.
Data from FE Analytics shows the Marlborough Special Situations fund has returned 2,549 per cent over Mr Hargreave’s 22 years tenure as manager, compared with the sector’s 451 per cent average.
Mr McDermott said: “Mr Hargreave has been an outstanding UK smaller companies fund manager.
“Thankfully for his investors, during that time he has also built an exceptionally strong team. This is excellent succession planning that has been in the making for some years and investors are being given plenty of advance warning.”
FundCalibre is maintaining ‘elite ratings’ for both the Marlborough Special Situations and Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth funds.
As part of the changes, Mr Santa Barbara — who has co-managed Marlborough Special Situations with Hargreave for more than five years — will take on the additional role of co-manager of the Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth and Marlborough Nano-Cap Growth funds. After working with Mr Hargreave for more than eight years, Mr Feld will become co-manager of the Marlborough Special Situations fund.
Mr Hargreave said: “Working with a large and talented team investing in some of the UK’s most exciting and innovative businesses is a great privilege and I look forward to continuing to do so.
“We have a very strong and collaborative team, united by one investment philosophy, and we are committed to our aim of seeing the funds continue to go from strength to strength.”
Wayne Green, joint managing director at Marlborough, said the success of the funds had been down to a “team-based approach”, adding Mr Hargreave would continue to work closely with the team.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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