Hugh Cuthbert departed SVM Asset Management in March after 18 years at the firm. The SVM Continental Europe fund manager – who joined from Kempen Capital Management in 2006 – left to little fanfare and was swiftly replaced by James Sym.
His £33.1m portfolio was up 81.2% over the five years to the end of March when he left, outshining the average IA Europe ex UK portfolio by 23.6 percentage points.
But performance mellowed in recent years, with its 16.1% return over the past three years trailing behind the peer group’s 24.6% gain – and falling an even steeper 13 percentage points below the MSCI Europe ex UK benchmark’s 29% return.
Cuthbert’s successor has managed another IA Europe ex UK fund – R&M ES River and Mercantile European – since September 2020. Under Sym’s leadership, the £110m is up 39.8%, narrowly underperforming the MSCI Europe ex UK index by four percentage points.
Sym also specialised in European equities while at Schroders, where he managed its European Sustainable Equity, European Alpha Plus, European Equity Impact and European Opportunities funds.
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