“Big changes” to personnel have not changed the structure of Schroders’ value equity team, according to its head, Nick Kirrage.
FT Adviser can reveal that one of the fund managers on the value equity team, Andy Evans, has left the firm and has been replaced by internal candidate Tom Grady.
This comes after value fund manager Kevin Murphy left Schroders last year after 24 years at the firm to join Brickwood Asset Management.
Evans, who is leaving for personal reasons, worked on the UK funds within the recovery team.
He was named a manager on just one of these funds, but his replacement Grady will be a named fund manager on both the UK Recovery and UK Income funds, something which Kirrage said “shows the regard in which we hold him”.
Grady had previously worked on UK funds within a different department of Schroders.
Kirrage said: “We knew him and had used some of his research. When the chance came to recruit him, we interviewed him and made him do stock analysis [tests] as well as other tests.”
The value team runs £13bn of assets across 11 funds.
Kirrage and his former colleague Murphy spent more than a decade working together, initially on UK value strategies and then on global mandates, prior to Murphy’s departure.
Kirrage told FT Adviser: “A few years ago Kevin and I divided it up so that I could spend more time on the global funds and he would focus on the UK, while I took on the line management responsibilities for the team.
“We were sorry to see Kevin go and when he did, I moved back across to focus on the UK funds, with colleagues stepping up to focus on the global funds.
“Kevin leaving was a big deal, and a big change for us, but if there are never any changes then there are never any fresh ideas.”
In addition to leading the value team, Kirrage is a fund manager on three of the UK products including the Schroder Recovery fund, a £922mn strategy which has returned 102 per cent over the past five years, compared with 45 per cent for the IA UK All Companies sector in the same time period.
He also runs the Schroder Income fund and the Income Maximiser funds, with Grady as his co-manager.
Simon Adler, an employee since 2008, is the lead fund manager on the global strategies within the value team.
In total there are nine named fund managers within the team, running 11 funds.
Kirrage said one investment which has made them a lot of money recently has been holdings within UK banks.
While he is still keen to own them, he said: “It is fair to say that while there is more to go, there is also a lot in the price now. The market hasn’t exactly helped funds like ours in recent years, some of the themes have taken time to play out.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
