Mallinckrodt, who has spent more than 20 years at Schroders, relinquished his executive responsibilities on Wednesday but will continue to sit on the board as a non-executive director, the firm said. Additionally, he will serve on the nominations committee.
Schroders chairman Michael Dobson commented: “Philip has made a major contribution to Schroders’ success, particularly in the last eight years as an executive director of Schroders plc. I am delighted that he will serve as a non-executive director and I look forward to continuing to work with him in this new capacity.”
In the interim, the private assets and wealth management group will report to chief executive Peter Harrison.
Reporting changes
In another surprising move, the FTSE 100-listed fund house also announced it will no longer release quarterly reports, opting instead to provide an update on assets under management and administration in the first and third quarters.
News of the director change accompanied the release of Schroders’ full-year results for 2016, which highlighted an 8% increase in net operating revenue to £223m for the firm’s wealth management arm, including performance fees of £2.4m.
Asset flows
However, on the asset management side of the business, “macro uncertainty and volatile markets” took their toll on the retail arm, culminating in net redemptions of £2.9bn, chiefly from equity products.
At the end of December, the retail platform’s AUM totalled £120.1bn compared with £100.9bn the year before.
The institutional sales channel weathered the volatile environment far better, generating £1.4bn in net new business and offsetting outflows in the retail and wealth management businesses.
A weaker sterling also provided a major boon to the fund house, increasing assets under management by £42bn.
Total assets under management and administration ended the year up 27% to £397.1bn
Expansion
These moves added £11.1bn in AUA and £2.3bn in AUM, respectively, more than offsetting the £300m outflows seen over the period.
The group’s profit before tax edged up close to 5% to £618.1m, enabling it to declare a final dividend of 93p per share, an increase of 7%.