HEAD-TO-HEAD: Barings versus Merian

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MANAGER REVIEW

The Barings fund has been run by Nick Williams since January 2005. Williams is head of the firm’s small-cap equity team and has more than 20 years’ experience in European equities.

Previously, he worked at Singer & Friedlander for 11 years, where he was head of the European desk and a member of the investment policy committee. He was responsible for running institutional and retail European assets across the market-cap scale.

“Williams has experience managing both institutional and retail European funds across the capitalisation range,” said McDermott.

In 2010, Williams was joined by 25-year veteran Colin Riddles, who came from GLG where he ran the UK Smaller Companies strategy.

Williams is also supported by Rosemary Simmonds, who started at Baring Asset Management in 2010 from Baillie Gifford, where she worked as an analyst for two years.

Riddles and Simmonds became named managers on the strategy at the start of 2017, and at the end of 2016, William Cuss joined the team from Investec, where he had focused on the European consumer staples sector.

The analyst resources in the London-based equities team are also used for stock coverage and deeper industry insights.

Mark Heslop and Mark Nichols took over running of the Merian fund in July this year, having joined Jupiter in 2019, according to McDermott.

“Merian and Jupiter have since merged and both managers now run a number of European mandates for the amalgamated firm,” he said.

“They both joined the company from Columbia Threadneedle and have worked together for some time in the European equity space,” he noted.

Before Heslop and Nichols took over the reins, Ian Ormiston had managed the strategy since its inception in November 2014.

The team supporting Ormiston had undergone some upheaval in recent years, with Liam Nunn, who joined Merian in 2015, leaving in late 2018, and his replacement Ash Sony departing after less than a year as part of the firm’s cost-cutting measures.

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