Sanlam Private Wealth named a new UK chief executive, Henderson hired a trio of investors for its property funds and Kames lowered the fees on its Diversified Income fund this week.
There’s always a lot to keep track of in the fund management world so we’ve pulled together some of this week’s stories in the below roundup.
Jonathan Polin named Sanlam Private Wealth’s UK CEO
Former Ashcourt Rowan head Jonathan Polin has been appointed as the new UK chief executive of Sanlam Private Wealth.
Polin, who departed his role as group chief executive at Ashcourt Rowan earlier this year after its takeover by Towry, will take up his new position on 1 November.
He takes over from current chief executive Craig Massey and says one of his first aims is to lift Sanlam Private Wealth’s UK presence. At Ashcourt Rowan, he took the firm from being a loss-making business with a market cap of £22m to one worth £129m when it was acquired.
Polin said: “This is an exciting time in the development of Sanlam Private Wealth in the UK. I am delighted to be able to lead a business that has achieved so much but also has such huge potential to grow the Sanlam brand and proposition in the UK.”
“We will be looking to leverage off the huge resources the global group has and the success of the wealth division in South Africa, Australia and Switzerland. It will be an honour to lead the business and I am excited by the opportunity and the prospect of working with the team to develop leading client propositions and create material shareholder value.”
Massey is to return to South Africa as branch operations director and head of stockbroking. During his time in the role, he oversaw the merger of Principal Investment Management and Merchant Securities to create Sanlam Private Wealth.
Kames cuts fees on Diversified Income fund
Kames Capital has reduced the Diversified Income fund’s annual management charge (AMC) in a bid to make the product more attractive to pension investors.
The group plans to cut the AMC on the fund's B share class from its current 0.65 per cent to 0.55 per cent. It says the move comes on the back of feedback from investors and is in line with the shift in the industry towards clean share classes.
Kames’ director of wholesale business Steve Kenny says: “With the recent changes announced by the government capping fees on pension pots to 0.75 per cent from April this year we believe this move makes the fund extremely attractive to pension investors or anyone seeking an attractive income.”
“Not only are the charges now highly competitive, it also has excellent performance and should now be able to capture the market share it deserves.”
Kames Diversified Income, which is managed by Vincent McEntegart, has made a 10.78 per cent total return since launch in February 2014. It resides in the IA Specialist peer group, so sector comparisons are not appropriate, and does not have a benchmark.
Performance of fund since launch
Source: FE Analytics
Amundi launches global multi-asset fund to retail investors
Amundi has launched a UCITS version of its Multi Asset Global fund, which is based on a strategy that has been headed by its institutional team for more than a decade.
Amundi Funds Multi Asset Global will reside in the group's Luxembourg SICAV range and be co-managed by Alexandre Burgues and the firm’s multi-asset team. It targets outperformance of the Eonia, or one-day eurozone interbank interest rate, with dividends reinvested by more than 2.5 per cent per annum over a three-year period.
It will aim to do this through alternative opportunities, with its asset allocation being based on a risk budget.
Burgues said: “In a market environment characterised by historically low bond and money market yields and strong equity market volatility, traditional static allocations no longer deliver expected returns.”
“However, we believe markets offer many opportunities, provided one knows how to identify and lock in attractive risk premiums in a broad investment universe: a better diversified, flexible allocation can deliver steadier performance over time.”
Henderson hires trio for global property equity portfolios
The hire of a trio of managers for its Chicago office means Henderson Global Investors will bring the management of its global property equity portfolios fully in-house.
The firm has brought in Bob Thomas as head of North American property equities, Greg Kuhl as portfolio manager and Mike Engels as an analyst to run the North American portions of its Henderson Horizon Global Property Equities and Henderson Horizon Pan European Property Equities funds.
Performance of fund versus sector and index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
These portions of the funds are currently overseen by US real estate investment group Harrison Street Securities. Thomas, Kuhl and Engels will take over the North American portfolios on 1 November, working alongside London-based co-heads of global property equities Guy Barnard and Tim Gibson.
Barnard said: “We have worked with Harrison Street for eight years and thank them for the service they have provided.”
“Looking ahead, a strengthened property securities team, with dedicated portfolio managers in all of our key regions, will enable us to pursue a more integrated global investment process that will best serve our clients' needs.”
Thomas joins from AMP Capital, where he was co-head of North American listed real estate. Kuhl and Engels both join from Brookfield Investment Management, after working on global long-only and long-short property funds.
UK dividends hit new record in Q3
UK businesses paid out a record amount of dividends in the third quarter of the year, according to the latest Capita UK Dividend Monitor, although there are question marks over the outlook for 2016.
Across the third quarter of 2015, total headline dividends of £27.2bn were paid out – which is the highest third quarter pay-out on record and an annual increase of 6.8 per cent.
Underlying dividends, which strip out special dividends, saw a pay-out total of £25.8bn.
Financials drove UK dividend growth once again, with pay-outs strong across the whole sector. The report says Lloyds Bank’s interim dividend was “a particular highlight”, it being the second payment it has made this year after a crisis-driven six year hiatus.
However, Capita said it expects dividend growth to be much slower in 2016 at just 3 per cent.
Justin Cooper, chief executive of Shareholder Solutions, part of Capita Asset Services, said: “Income investors have had terrific dividend pay-outs in 2015 so far, shrugging off some high profile casualties like Tesco.”
“But the outlook is gloomier. Profits are lower relative to dividends than at any time since 2009, and we have seen some of Britain’s biggest dividend payers announce drastic cuts for the year to come, with the prospect of more to follow.”
