Two fund managers within the Liontrust multi-asset team are on gardening leave as the company integrates the Architas business it purchased last year into its £7.4bn fund range.
Former Architas fund managers Nathan Sweeney and Sheldon MacDonald are leaving the company, as confirmed in a statement from Liontrust today (March 25).
The statement read: “Liontrust can confirm that Sheldon MacDonald and Nathan Sweeney will be leaving Liontrust.
"Sheldon MacDonald and Nathan Sweeney are currently on gardening leave and are no longer managing any of the multi-asset funds.
"The Liontrust multi-asset team is headed by John Husselbee and also comprises James Klempster (deputy head), Paul Kim, Mayank Markanday, Jen Causton and Shayan Ratnasingam, along with a four-strong multi-asset investment support team.”
Klempster recently joined Liontrust as deputy head of multi-asset having worked at Momentum Global Investment Management, the South African company which recently acquired Seneca Investment Managers in the UK.
Sweeney had worked at Architas for ten years, and joined Liontrust in November 2020 when the company was acquired, having previously worked at Cazenove Capital.
MacDonald had been deputy chief investment officer at Architas and then became deputy head of multi-asset at Liontrust in November 2020. He had previously worked at Nedgroup Investments and Old Mutual.
The Liontrust multi-asset team ran assets of £7.4bn at the end of December 2020.
Darius McDermott, managing director at Chelsea Financial Services, said: “John Husselbee is one of the most experienced multi-asset managers out there.
"I believe his process is focused on risk-adjusted returns. Liontrust have been growing steadily and have been adding assets to their multi-asset team.
"Unfortunately as is nearly always the case, there are redundancies. I have met Nathan Sweeney a number of times over the years and found him to be a good guy who knows his stuff.”
Husselbee recently told FTAdviser that he regards the announcement of the first vaccine discovery in November 2020 as the precise date when the long-term trend in markets of growth stocks beating value stocks came to an end, and he expects the longer-term story to be one of value stocks beating growth stocks.
He said he had adjusted his portfolios to reflect this.
david.thorpe@ft.com
