Tulloch will relinquish management of the Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders and the First State Investments Asia Pacific Leaders funds. These will be managed by David Gait and Sashi Reddy. The Asia Pacific Leaders fund will adopt a sustainable strategy as part of the change.
Reddy will also take on Tulloch’s responsibilities for the Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders, Stewart Investors MPF Global Equity and the Colonial First State Wholesale Worldwide Leaders funds alongside the wider sustainable funds team. The Asia Pacific fund will now be lead-managed by Ashish Swarup.
Asante will hand over management of the two versions of the Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets Leaders to Ashish Swarup and Tom Prew, alongside his other mandates.
David Gait will now co-manage the Worldwide Sustainability and Colonial First State Wholesale Worldwide Sustainability funds with Nick Edgerton. Prew will co-manage the Stewart Investors Latin America fund with Dominic St George.
Tulloch had already said he would step back from management of the Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust in July of this year.
Ratings groups acted quickly to suspend ratings on the funds. FundCalibre removed the Elite Rating on Stewart Investors Global Emerging Market Leaders, Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders and First State Latin America.
Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre said: “This is very unsettling for investors. The teams have only recently been split into two and now we have some substantial changes with some very experienced lead managers now taking a back seat.
“We fully appreciate that the investment style and philosophy of the funds will not be changing, and they have a team-based process, but all managers do things slightly differently.
“Ashish Swarup has been doing some good work behind the scenes since his arrival from Fidelity, and we like the work Tom Prew did with the Latin America fund, but they will have something to prove.
“We are more comfortable with the change in lead manager on the Asia Pacific Leaders fund. David Gait has an outstanding track record on the Elite Rated Asia Pacific Sustainability fund.
“However, there is a question mark as to whether he can translate the sustainable investment process from what is currently a small and mid-cap fund to an all-cap fund. We will request a meeting with David to talk through this further and may reinstate the Rating on the Leaders fund at a later date. For now, however, it must be removed.”
