Lee will work with Graham Glass, lead manager on the £91.3m City Financial Defensive Global Bond fund.
Lee joins from independent investment consulting practice Asset Risk Consultants. He has over 25 years of experience in financial services across a number of roles, including portfolio management, proprietary trading, and risk advisory at companies including HSBC, Old Mutual Asset Management and Exco International.
Graham Glass commented: “Phillip’s extensive fixed income knowledge will help drive our commitment of delivering consistent returns with minimal volatility and low correlation. We look forward to working with him to develop our business strategy.”
Glass took over the Defensive Global Bond Fund in January of last year. Performance has started to turn around, with the fund lying 93 out of 97 funds in the global bonds sector over three years, but 67 out of 118 funds over one year. Its FE risk score – at 16 – is substantially lower than that of the wider sector (at 36).
A number of the group’s other funds have also seen a turnaround in performance over the past 12 months. Of the group’s 9 UK-listed funds, the UK Strategic Gilt, UK Equity, Multi-Asset Balanced and Diversified funds are all top quartile over one year.
Lee’s appointment comes shortly after Peter Toogood and Gill Hutchinson joined the group in September from Morningstar OBSR to boost the group’s research function. The group recently lost its head of UK asset management Ed Rosengarten, but has otherwise been on a steady recruitment drive with its fund management team now including ex-New Star multi-manager head Mark Harris and Leigh Himsworth on the UK Select Opportunities Fund.
