The wealth manager said on Monday it had restructured its multi-asset fund, dropping previous manager Pimco in favour of a blend of managers from Invesco Perpetual, Schroders and Payden & Rygel, a US based firm with which St James’s Place has an exclusive retail agreement in the UK.
According to the group, the decision was unrelated to the changes at the top of Pimco and have been in the works for some time.
SJP, the fund’s investment strategy remains unchanged, but CIO Chris Ralph said the changes are “exciting” because the combination of more than one manager provides “the potential for strong returns and greater capital protection over the medium term”.
The fund will now be managed by a blend of the Invesco Perpetual Global Targeted Returns team, led by David Millar and supported by co-managers Dave Jubb and Richard Batty; Mike Hodgson, head of risk managed investments and structuring and part of the Schroders Portfolio Solutions team who will be responsible for the equity component of the fund and Payden & Rygel’s investment team of Scott Weiner, Brian Matthews and Brad Boyd which, SJP said brings together the best ideas from P&R’s fixed-income teams, including in sovereign debt, investment-grade and high-yield bonds, asset-backed securities and emerging market debt.
The group has also announced the closure to new investments of the Allshare Income Unit Trust Fund and the Diversified Income fund, both managed by AXA Framlington’s George Luckraft.
And, the launch of a UK Income Fund to be managed by Majedie’s Chris Reid.
The changes take effect from 10 November 2014, it said.