James Houlden has been promoted to co-portfolio manager on Jack Barrat’s £350m Man GLG Absolute Value fund, having served as an analyst on the strategy for four years.
Houlden joined Man GLG in May 2017 from UBS, where he worked within the equities team, and was made an analyst on the fund upon its launch in June 2017. In his new role as co-portfolio manager, he will continue to report to lead portfolio manager Barrat.
Man GLG Absolute Value is a long/short strategy that seeks to identify companies with assets or returns that are undervalued by the market in long positions, and firms that are overvalued with deteriorating returns and outlook for short positions.
Performance of fund vs sector and benchmark since launch
Source: FE Analytics
Since launch in June 2017, the fund – which holds an FE fundinfo Crown Rating of five – has generated a total return of 31.70 per cent, compared with 6.94 per cent from its average IA Targeted Absolute Return peer.
This is the fourth highest return from the 115 funds in the sector, coming with slightly higher annualised volatility (5.58 per cent for the fund versus 3.71 per cent for the sector). It’s maximum drawdown of 6.87 per cent since launch is in line with its average peer.
Barrat said: “I am delighted to congratulate James on his new role as co-portfolio manager. Since the launch of the strategy in 2017, James has shown himself to be an extremely talented investor with an excellent eye for alpha generation.
“This promotion reflects his deep expertise and meaningful contribution to the fund, and I am excited to work with James in this new capacity as we continue to strive to deliver returns for our clients.”