Standard Life secure pole position on grid of Scotland’s best-performing asset managers
STANDARD Life fund managers have taken three of the top four places in The Herald’s latest monthly table of Scotland’s top-performing asset managers.
Unusually none of the managers working for investment houses with a significant Scottish presence bagged an AAA rating from Citywire for their performance in the three years to September 30.
Jacqueline Lowe, manager of the SLI Dynamic Distribution fund, was the highest-placed with a UK-wide ranking of 322, followed by colleagues Edward Legget (370) and Thomas Moore (380), the managers of SLI’s UK Equity Unconstrained fund. They were split by fixed income manager Stephen Snowden (376), who runs Kames Capital’s investment grade bond funds.
Ms Lowe’s Dynamic Distribution Fund, a fund of funds, has benefited from the strong performance of her colleagues’ UK Equity Unconstrained fund, which have been two of her fund’s biggest holdings. She also positioned the fund to benefit from this year’s rise in property.
Ms Lowe took over at the top from Mr Legget, who had the previous month ended the threemonth reign of Artemis’s Jacob de Tusch-Lec. The Artemis global income manager had claimed a ranking of 142 in the three years to July, putting him way out in front, but slipped to third place in the August table and is now ranked seventh at 418.
The biggest leap up the table saw a jump from 762 to 415 for Sonal Desai, who manages global bond f u nd s at Fr a n k l i n Templeton.
Audrey Ryan, who runs UK Opportunities, Ethical Equity and Ethical Cautious Managed funds at Kames, dropped from second place to fifth, her UK position down from 311 to 399.
The performance of two SWIP funds, now part of Aberdeen, triggered sharp climbs up the rankings for corporate bond fund managers Roger Webb and Luke Hickmore, in eighth and ninth positions in the Scottish table and ranked 426 and 450 respectively UK-wide.
David Gait of First State, slipping just one place from the previous month to 479, made up the top 10, while just outside it were Baillie Gifford’s Japan team Sarah Whitley and Matthew Brett, who topped the Citywire table for several months earlier in the year.
Only two other managers, SLI’s Colette Conboy and Peter Saacke at Ar temis, were AA-rated for the three-year performance period.
A total of 88 Scottish managers achieved a Citywire rating compared with 90 for the previous period, as 13 managers joined the elite but 15 departed.
The highest-placed new arrivals were Baillie Gifford’s Patrick Edwardson and Mike Brooks.
Standard Life Investments saw its overall quota of Citywire-rated managers fall from 18 the previous month to 14, while Franklin Templeton’s cadre jumped from 11 to 14
Houses adding to their rated managers were Franklin Templeton, up from 14 to 17, Kames Capital (six to nine) and First State (four to six). Aberdeen (eight) , SVM (three), Saracen (two), Martin Currie (one), Edinburgh Partners (one) and Argonaut Capital Partners (one) all lost one rated manager from the July table.