Effective from today, Steve Cordell has stepped up to become lead manager on Rice’s European and European Equity ex UK funds as well as his European Equity Absolute Return hedge fund.
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James Sym is now the sole manager of the European Income Fund.
Rice’s role as head of the pan European equities team will be taken on by Julie Dean, a company director and manager of the Cazenove UK Equity and UK Opportunities funds.
Within Cazenove and to its clients, Dean’s team is known as the business cycle team. It will keep this identity and, when they move across to Schroders – expected to be on 2 July, pending regulatory approval – the funds will be run separately to the existing Schroders pan European propositions, keeping their existing, distinctive investment process.
Chris Taylor, currently head of equities management at Schroders, will become head of equities investment operations to support Dean.
As well as a number of Luxembourg-based Sicavs, Schroders has three European equity funds of its own that are available to retail investors in the UK – European (run by Martin Skanberg), European Alpha Plus (Leon Howard-Spink) and European Smaller Companies (Luke Biermann).
Which of the two European Equity funds would you invest in?
Until he leaves in July, Rice will remain with Cazenove “to ensure a thorough handover of portfolios and clients”. The only immediate plan Rice has from July onwards is to take a well-earned break and he is unlikely to make any further announcement about his future intentions until next year.
“After 22 years in the industry, I feel that I need a break,” he commented, “and the transaction has crystallised those thoughts. It would be unfair on all concerned not to be open about this.
“I am very supportive of the transaction and have a great amount of respect for Schroders: I see it as a natural home for the team.”
