Co-manager of the £2.1bn Fidelity European Trust (FEV) Sam Morse will retire in October 2027, according to an update published on the London Stock Exchange today (8 September 2026).
Morse, who has managed the trust for 15 years, is also lead manager of the £3.8bn open-ended Fidelity European fund.
He joined Fidelity as a research analyst in 1990, becoming a UK equity portfolio manager four years later. After moving to M&G as its head of UK equities in 1997, Morse returned to Fidelity in 2004 as head of its institutional UK equity team. He began running Fidelity European in 2009, and FEV in 2011.
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Since Morse became lead manager of the Fidelity European fund, it has returned 342.2%, compared to its sector average and MSCI Europe ex UK benchmark’s respective gains of 295.7% and 282.3%, according to FE fundinfo data.
FEV has gained 459.9% under Morse’s tenure, outperforming its average peer and FTSE World Europe ex UK benchmark by 112.5 percentage points and 151.8 percentage points, respectively. The trust is trading on a 4.8% discount to its net asset value, according to AIC data.
Succession plan
From November this year, Morse and co-manager Marcel Stötzel will be joined by Alexander Laing in managing FEV. Laing, who has been at Fidelity since 2011, currently runs the firm’s Climate Solutions fund, its Circular Economy strategy and is co-manager on the Fidelity Funds – Water & Waste fund.
There will be no change to FEV’s investment process or philosophy, according to the trust’s board.
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Commenting on Morse’s retirement, board chair Davina Walter said: “Bringing Alexander into the portfolio management team at this stage provides an extended period for him to work closely alongside Sam and Marcel, supporting a smooth transition of responsibilities over a 12-month period. Alexander also brings complementary portfolio management experience and investment expertise to the team.”
She added the board is grateful for Morse’s “continued commitment to the company and his support in the long-term succession plan, as well as for the significant contribution he has made to FEV’s success over the past 15 years”.
Paul Angell, head of investment research at AJ Bell, said the announcement is “not a major surprise” to the firm following “indications over recent years” that the manager might retire as he approached 65. FEV is a long-standing member of AJ Bell’s Investment Trust Select List.
“We have built good conviction in Marcel Stotzel, the trust’s co-manager, having been assured by his grasp on the fund’s philosophy and broader European equity markets during our meetings with him,” he explained.
“The trust invests in companies that the managers believe to be high quality and where they expect to grow their income through time. One point of interest is that Marcel and Alexander are expecting ‘to invest selectively in companies that fall outside those typical criteria’. We’ll be pressing for more clarity here as to what sorts of companies they’ll be looking to invest in here, what overall size will these positions be, and why they feel this change is necessary.”
Angell added that, overall, the team is “not unduly concerned” by the announcement, and that the long handover period will help to ease any potential investor reservations.
“We draw confidence from the experience Marcel has gained over the last five years as a manager on the trust and the large team of analysts that continue to support idea generation for the fund.”
