Premier Miton’s former UK equities boss Chris White has resurfaced at Mattioli Woods as an investment director.
White (pictured) left Premier in April, just months after its merger with rival Miton, handing the reins of his Premier Income and Monthly Income funds to Eric Moore as well as the Optimum Income fund, which he served as co-manager on. He had managed Premier’s UK equity income strategies since 2010 and before that ran a range of growth and income funds at Threadneedle.
Following White’s exit Premier Miton announced it would be merging the £193.1m Income fund with the £262.4m Monthly Income fund, a move that was expected due to incoming manager Moore’s more “traditional income bent”.
See also: Premier Miton fund mergers expected as UK income lead exits
But Moore’s time at the helm was short-lived as he was replaced by BNY Mellon Investment Management’s Emma Mogford earlier this month, six months after replacing White.
White is one of the few notable departures from Premier Miton which this year has been on a hiring spree, poaching Merian Global Investors’ former fixed income team led by Lloyd Harris in June who were shunned following the firm’s merger with Jupiter, as well as Aberdeen Standard Investments fund manager Alan Rowsell and analyst Imogen Harris to launch a global smaller companies fund.
He now joins Mattioli Woods as an investment director.
Mattioli Woods CIO Simon Gibson said White’s appointment comes at a time when the investment manager is “going from strength to strength”.
“We are excited about what we can achieve for clients with the likes of Hurley Partners now in the group, and organic growth from our existing consultants just shows how attractive our proposition is,” Gibson said.
White added he was excited to be joining Mattioli Woods “a company I have long admired”.
Like Premier Miton Mattioli Woods has also seen a flurry of hiring activity despite the coronavirus crisis, which has been in part boosted by its recent acquisitions. In addition to White it has made two hires to the investment team since the first national lockdown in the UK.
See also: How has the Covid crisis impacted recruitment at DFMs?
Chief executive Ian Mattioli had sacrificed his basic salary for three months and contemplated scrapping staff bonuses to cushion the blow from the pandemic but made a U-turn on the latter after the wealth manager’s full year results were “significantly ahead of budget”.
