Fund buyers are digesting news of Schroders’ succession plan for Matthew Dobbs, which will see the Asian equity veteran replaced by his long-standing colleague Richard Sennitt.
The FTSE 100 fund group announced on Monday that Dobbs (pictured) will retire from the firm in 2021 after nearly four decades.
Dobbs who is lead manager on the £1.2bn Schroder Asian Alpha Plus fund as well as over £1.5bn worth of assets in the Oriental Income and Asia Pacific trusts, has spent the entirety of his career at Schroders, having joined the firm as an equity analyst in 1981. He has been Schroders’ head of global small companies since 2000.
Dobbs will hand over his portfolio management responsibilities for his Asia funds to Sennitt who he has worked with for over 13 years and is his co-manager on the Global Smaller Companies and Small Cap Discovery funds. Sennitt, who has been at Schroders since 1993 and is the sole manager on the £1.2bn Asian Income fund, will be supported by Abbas Barkhordar.
Dobbs’ global and small cap mandates will be handed to Bob Kaynor, Luke Biermann and Alex Deane.
Meanwhile Chris Taylor will be taking on the role of head of global and international smaller companies, while Robin Parbrook will assume investment oversight for the Asia funds.
Schroders said the “carefully managed transition” will begin in early 2021 with Dobbs remaining at the firm as an adviser before he retires by the end of next year. It added the move would ensure continuity for clients and demonstrates its commitment to promoting and supporting its pipeline of in-house talent.
Fund buyers mull transition
Schroders’ succession plan has given several fund buyers food for thought as they mull Dobbs’ departure.
Fundcalibre managing director Darius McDermott said despite knowing Senitt and the franchise “very well” the firm needs to discuss his “enhanced responsibilities” before deciding whether to maintain its Elite rankings on the Schroder Asian Alpha Plus and Schroder Oriental Income funds.
McDermott described Dobbs’ departure from Schroders as a “loss to the company and investors”.
“However, Matthew’s departure has been well sign-posted and there is a long handover period, so we don’t feel there is a need for a snap decision at this time,” he added.
AJ Bell, which invests in Dobb’s funds and trusts across its portfolios, also said it would be meeting with Dobbs and Sennitt “very soon” to discuss the handover.
“While not pre-judging the outcome of these discussions, I see no need for existing investors to have any concerns given the strong team at Schroders and the clear and well flagged transition process,” head of active portfolios Ryan Hughes said.
Willis Owen head of personal investing Adrian Lowcock said Sennitt is well placed to succeed Dobbs given their close working relationship and his 26 years of experience investing in Asian markets.
“Whilst his strategy has a value bias for income the focus of the manager is on fundamentals of the investments which should translate across to the growth at a reasonable price (GARP) approach used in Dobbs’ funds as stock selection is a strong trait of Sennitt’s”.
