Aberdeen Standard Investments UK Equity fund manager Louise Kernohan has left the company to pursue other interests.
Kernohan (pictured) has been replaced as lead manager on the £405m strategy by head of UK equities Andrew Millington who was previously deputy manager.
Millington will be supported by Samantha Brownlee who has been with ASI since 2008 and is currently an investment director in the US equity team, and Georgina Cooper who has been with ASI’s UK equity team for more than five years.
Kernohan was also co-manager on the Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust. Co-manager Ben Ritchie will continue to manage the trust with further updates to come,
“Having previously been the fund’s deputy portfolio manager and an active member of the UK equity team’s quality portfolio construction group, I believe we are well placed to facilitate a seamless transition,” Millington said in a note to clients.
In a separate press release, he thanked Kernohan for her “hard work over the years” and wished her “all the best for future”.
ASI said there will be no change to the investment process or portfolio positions as a result of the changes.
According to Trustnet, the ASI UK Equity fund is top quartile over one, three and five years, returning -1.2%, 10.6% and 36.8%, respectively, compared with the UK All Companies sector average of -11%, -6.4% and 16.2%.
“The UK equity team is one of the best resourced teams in the industry, with 16 investment professionals providing full research coverage of the FTSE 350 ex investment trusts on an ongoing basis,” Millington added.
It follows the announcement last month that ASI is closing its underperforming UK Recovery Equity fund. The group said it would be liquidating the fund on 22 October after its largest investor decided to redeem their holding which “constitutes a substantial proportion of the assets of the fund”.
The fund, which was run by Andrew Hunt until May when Wes McCoy took over, was the worst-performing in H1 this year with a return of -42.5%.
