Interactive Investor has decided to keep the Artemis Monthly Distribution on its Super 60 list following the exit of James Foster despite many of the platform’s peers in the investment industry removing the bond manager’s former funds from their buy lists.
In September, Artemis announced Foster would retire from fund management at the end of the year. As a result Artemis has restructured its bond team, handing oversight to Stephen Snowden.
The equity bucket of the £692.7m Artemis Monthly Distribution fund will continue to be run by Jacob de Tusch-Lec with Stephen Baines stepping into run the bond element of the portfolio. The Strategic Bond fund will be handed to Snowden’s former Kames colleague Juan Valenzuela and Rebecca Young, who joined Artemis this month from Janus Henderson.
At the time of the announcement, Chelsea Financial Services announced it was removing the Artemis Strategic Bond fund from the Chelsea Selection list, while Square Mile also removed its rating on the strategic bond fund, which has also suffered from the exit of Alex Ralph.
See also: Artemis bond funds lose Square Mile rating on James Foster and Alex Ralph exit
Stephen Baines brings opportunities to Artemis Monthly Income
But following a formal review, which included a meeting with Baines, Interactive Investor has decided to keep the Artemis Monthly Distribution fund as an income option in the mixed-asset category on its Super 60 buy list.
In a press release, II said Baines had relevant experience in shaping the portfolio’s overall profile once the equity positions have been decided.
II head of funds research Dzmitry Lipski said the fund was still one of the best options for income investors in the mixed asset sector.
“There’s been no changes to the fund’s objective or investment process, which aims to generate income and some capital appreciation over a five-year period, from a well-diversified portfolio, invested across different geographies and asset classes,” Lipski said. “Nor does it affect the fund’s investment process, which focuses on businesses with strong underlying fundamentals and selecting securities from across the equity and bond markets.”
In fact, he saw potential opportunities from the manager changes to leverage Baine’s expertise in the global high yield space to widen the investment universe of the fund.
See also: Artemis swipes Fidelity’s Paras Anand after CIO exits
