Frikkee, who left her role as manager of the S&W UK Equity Income and Global Growth funds in January, joins Waverton on Wednesday as a UK equities specialist. She will take over management of its UK Equity fund.
Andrew Fleming, chief executive at Waverton, told Portfolio Adviser Frikkee (pictured) has been hired to add gravitas to the UK Equity fund which despite being launched in 2001, is relatively unknown because it is a small in-house fund without a particularly good performance record.
The fund, run by Alexandra Buchan and Charles Macfayden, has been fourth quartile over one, three, five and 10 years. It has returned -1.87%, 9.84%, 25.16% and 87.46% over these periods respectively, versus the FO Equity – UK sector’s 4.91%, 22.77%, 39.83% and 104.4%, according to FE data.
Fleming said: “It is an in-house fund, it is a small fund and the performance record has not been particularly good, so that’s really the reason for it.
“We need a strong manager with effective final decision-making rights. The UK market is a difficult one because it is such a deep and broad market and there is no substitute for experience.”
Frikkee joined S&W in 2013 and prior to that, spent 15 years at Newton Investment Management, running the £3bn Higher Income Fund and £1.2bn in other UK equity funds.
Fleming said Frikkee will be given a period to establish herself as the manager of the fund before Waverton markets it more forcefully at some point in the future.
“There has been a big de-rating of the UK equity market because of Brexit,” he said. “UK equities is a great market for stock pickers and active management, and we think de-rating the market has thrown up opportunities which is why we wanted to strengthen our capability.”
Adrian Lowcock, head of personal finance at Willis Owen, said Frikkee is a good hire as she is an experienced UK equities manager with more than 20 years under her belt.
He said: “Overall this is a strong appointment for Waverton as she brings substantial experience to the company and an excellent depth of knowledge.”
Waverton has also hired Stefan Rheinwald as head of Japanese equity research. He joins from Singapore-based Catalytic Investment Group and has 24 years’ experience in Japanese investment and research.
Rheinwald has also worked as head of research and Japan strategist at CLSA in Tokyo and as a Japanese equity manager and director at F&C in London.
