Investment fund axes Woodford protege Mark Barnett after weak results

Investment fund axes Neil Woodford protege Mark Barnett after string of weak results

Mark Barnett, former protégé of Neil Woodford, has been fired from the £1.1bn Edinburgh Investment Trust

Mark Barnett, the former protege of fallen fund manager Neil Woodford, has been fired from running a £1.1billion investment trust. 

The independent board of the Edinburgh Investment Trust said yesterday that it had sacked Barnett after ‘another weak result’.

It comes as a further humiliation for the 48-year-old fund manager, who has been shunned in the City following the downfall of his former mentor Woodford. Glen Suarez, the Edinburgh trust’s chairman, said: ‘I am disappointed by another weak result for the company in the interim results, extending the period of underperformance to beyond three years.’

Barnett’s employer, US fund house Invesco, revealed last month that it was scaling back his role. Formerly the sole head of UK equities, Barnett will share the role with a colleague from next year.

And the board of another listed fund he manages, the Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust, has been mulling over Barnett’s position after his run of poor performance.

The trust, chaired by Richard Laing, said it was not going to fire Barnett imminently.

It said: ‘While the company’s long-term performance remains poor, performance both in absolute and relative terms has improved over the last three months.

‘In light of this, and with the General Election taking place this week, the board does not consider it appropriate to undertake a review of its investment management arrangements at the current time.’

However it said that it would continue to ‘closely monitor’ Barnett’s performance.

The fund manager’s fall from grace comes hot on the heels of a terrible year. 

All of the four open-ended funds he manages – Invesco High Income (UK), Invesco Income (UK), Invesco UK Equity Income and Invesco UK Strategic Income – have underperformed.

The Edinburgh and Perpetual trusts have underperformed the FTSE All-Share by 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. 

Part of the reason for this is that Barnett buys stocks which he thinks are good value, which have been neglected by the wider market.

But amid high political and Brexit uncertainty, these stocks have lumbered along.

Suarez said Barnett had simply taken some bad punts on stocks which had experienced their own unique problems.

Investors in all of Barnett’s funds will be hoping today’s election improves certainty and boosts the remainder of the stocks he has betted on.

Following his three-month notice period, Barnett will be replaced at Edinburgh by James de Uphaugh of the asset manager Majedie.

 

Source link