Merian Global Investors has replaced the manager of its struggling UK Opportunities fund.
Data from FE Analytics shows the fund was the second worst performer in the IA UK Absolute Return sector in the three years from January 1 2016, to January 1 2019. During that time period, the fund lost 16.7 per cent.
This has prompted action from Merian, a firm that has previously replaced managers whose three-year investment returns are bottom quartile.
Simon Murphy, who had previously run the fund, left the firm at the end of December, to pursue other opportunities, in the words of a Merian representative.
His replacement on the fund is James Bowmaker, who has been an employee of Merian Global Investors since 2010, and prior to that worked at Baring Asset Management.
Mr Murphy had been an employee of Merian Global Investors for a decade, and had the title head of Large Cap UK equities.
Prior to joining Merian, he worked at M&G Investments for just less than a decade, and is a qualified chartered accountant.
Laura Suter, analyst at AJ Bell, said the worst performing absolute return funds have demonstrated that they do not “perform in all market conditions”, which is the aim of such funds.
david.thorpe@ft.com
