Hargreaves prunes Edentree income fund from buy list

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02 March 2023

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The £369m Edentree Responsible & Sustainable Managed Income Fund has been cut from the Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth Shortlist.

It follows lead manager Chris Hiorns stepping down from the fund, which heralds the second set of leadership changes in the last two-and-a-half years, HL said.

In November 2020, Hiorns took over management responsibility from Robin Hepworth (pictured), who had run the fund for around 25 years. “Our conviction in the fund was based around Hiorns continuing to run [it] in the same way as Hepworth before him,” HL said.

Hiorns will now focus on the European equity fund that he manages, passing the torch to Gregory Herbert, who joined Edentree from Jupiter in October 2022. He will be supported by Michael Sheehan, who will help manage the bond investments within the fund. Sheehan joined from Abrdn in 2021.

“Herbert has experience in managing equity funds, with a focus in more recent years on equity income investing. He plans to keep the broad way that the fund is managed, similar to Hiorns, however has confirmed that there will be a number of changes to the companies held within the shares part of the fund over the next few months,” HL wrote.

“Similarly for the bond part of the fund, Sheehan has confirmed that while the majority of the bond issuers will remain the same, he expects to rotate many of the investments into bonds that have higher credit ratings and are higher up the issuing company’s capital structure.”

The Hargreaves Lansdown team added: “A second set of changes to the managers of the fund in relatively short succession, alongside proposed changes to the investments held in the fund, reduces our level of conviction. Our conviction in the management of the fund lies with Hiorns and we don’t feel the track record of the new managers is sufficient for the fund to retain its place on the Wealth Shortlist.

“In addition, we do not feel the succession management has been well communicated by Edentree and we have been given a limited period of time to assess these changes. The combination of these factors means we have removed the fund from the Wealth Shortlist.”

A spokesperson for Edentree told Portfolio Adviser: “We can confirm that Hargreaves Lansdown has removed the Edentree Responsible & Sustainable Managed Income fund from the Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth Shortlist. This fund is currently transitioning to a new management team to strengthen a flagship responsible and sustainable product in the multi-asset income space.

“We are confident in the new management structure of the fund and continue to work with Hargreaves Lansdown to ensure they know and understand the opportunities that our funds offer to their investors.”