In March it was announced that Paul Niven had been appointed as his successor, who will take the reins in July.
The once-Silver rated fund, which has lost £500,000 since the news, was placed under review by the ratings agency.
Now with £2.1bn in assets, including a £250,000 global multi-manager mandate handed to F&C's own in-house fund of funds duo Gary Potter and Robert Burdett in a bid to bring down its UK exposure, Morningstar has awarded it a Bronze.
Consistent approach, little track record
Jackie Beard, director of closed-end fund research at Morningstar UK, said Niven was planning to run the fund in a similar vein to Tigue, acting as overarching asset allocator, while delegating stock selection to in-house managers or third-party funds.
"That means there's some consistency in decision-making, despite the change in named manager. Further, Niven has been chairman of the asset allocation committee at F&C for the last 10 years and worked closely with Tigue throughout that time. While he has little in the way of track record in his own name, we have sufficient conviction overall to award the fund a Bronze rating."
