Mark Barnett will be joining Tellworth Investments to launch a UK equity income fund for the specialist equity boutique. 
Barnett (pictured) will join the nine-strong Tellworth team later this month. London-based Tellworth was founded in 2017 by ex-Schroders managers Paul Marriage and John Warren; it now manages more than £800m of assets across four equity offerings – a long-only UK smaller companies strategy, two long/short UK funds and a long/short pan-European portfolio.
Marriage says: “The addition of a talented investor such as Mark – who has a strong track record of alpha generation in the UK over the long term – further strengthens our team as we look to capitalise on the broad range of opportunities we see within UK equities.”
Barnett made his name running the Invesco UK Strategic Income fund, before being handed the group’s flagship UK equity income funds after the departure of Neil Woodford. The manager built up a very strong track record on Invesco UK Strategic Income but experienced a prolonged poor performance and heavy outflows when running the ex-Woodford funds.
Barnett was also made Invesco’s head of UK equities on Woodford’s departure, but this role was split between him and Martin Walker at the start of 2020. He then left Invesco by mutual agreement in May 2020.
Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, said the move will give Barnett “an interesting opportunity … to rebuild his reputation after the torrid last few years he had at Invesco”.
“Paul Marriage and John Warren, who set up Tellworth, are shrewd investors and will no doubt see the opportunity to work alongside someone as experienced as Barnett as one that has the potential to really help grow the business from the strong start it has had in its initial focus on smaller companies and then taking on the Sanditon funds,” Hughes said.
“For Barnett, this is the opportunity for him to prove he still has the ability to deliver strong UK equity returns for investors without the shadow of his previous roles hanging over him. Taking on the funds at Invesco formerly managed by Neil Woodford was always going to be a difficult challenge for anyone and perhaps inevitably it played out that way, although I’m sure Barnett will admit that he made some mistakes along the way too. The opportunity now, to start with a blank sheet of paper, no legacy holdings and no unquoted companies that couldn’t be sold, will no doubt be an exciting one.
“With attention once again building in UK equities and particularly those paying dividends, it will be interesting to see the shape of the portfolio and how Barnett settles into working in a focused boutique manager rather than the asset management giant that was Invesco.”