Veteran Invesco fund manager Paul Chesson will leave the firm in the coming months in the latest change to its investment team since Stephanie Butcher became chief investment officer in 2020.
Chesson had been co-manager of the Invesco Japanese Equity Core fund since 1997 and the UK-domiciled Invesco Japan fund since 2000. He will leave the firm in Q1 and Invesco is considering handing portfolio management to its team in Tokyo within the first half of 2021 pending regulatory approval and client notice periods.
Invesco said in a statement that Chesson was leaving “by mutual consent” following a review of “review of the scope, capabilities and current state of funds” being run from the Henley office. The review has been headed up by Butcher (pictured) who replaced Nick Mustoe as CIO at the start of last year.
Butcher said: “Paul has been a longstanding and highly respected member of the team and I would like to thank him for his contribution and wish him the very best for the future.”
‘The surprise in many ways is really that it has taken this long’
In May, Butcher’s review of the UK equities desk led to Mark Barnett exiting the firm after a prolonged period of outflows and underperformance.
Tilney managing director Jason Hollands said the old Perpetual business had been somewhat ring-fenced for a long-time, replicating some of the capabilities available elsewhere within what is a substantial global business. “I think this increased integration into the wider Invesco group was inevitable at some point and the surprise in many ways is really that it has taken this long.”
Perpetual was rebranded as Invesco Perpetual in 2008. In 2018, Perpetual was dropped from the branding of the UK business to align with its US parent.
Willis Owen head of personal investing Adrian Lowcock said the Japanese desk at Henley had not been strongly promoted with Invesco focusing more on UK equities and bonds.
“The changes Stephanie is bringing are significant and it seems no area will be unaffected.” Lowcock expected more exits from the investment team but said the shake-up was ultimately good news for investors.
Chesson was ditched from the Wealth 150 and featured in recent Spot the Dog reports
Like Barnett, Chesson’s UK-domiciled fund had featured in Bestinvest’s Spot the Dog report in both 2018 and 2019 contributing to Invesco becoming the fund house with the most assets under management in so-called dog funds.
Hollands said Chesson’s performance had been suffering since 2017 but pinned this on his value approach being out of favour.
Invesco Japan is fourth quartile in the Investment Association Japan sector over one, three and five years.
Invesco Japan performance (%)
| 6m | 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | 10yr | |
| Invesco Japan | 13.25 | -2.54 | -9.21 | 32.11 | 64.46 |
| IA Japan sector | 14.37 | 12.68 | 14.83 | 71.46 | 125.23 |
Source: FE Fundinfo
Invesco Japan featured in the Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth 150 until it was dumped in 2017. At the time, investment analyst Dominic Rowles said Chesson’s performance had been volatile. “He has delivered some strong performance over short periods, such as in 2009, but this has often been followed with longer periods of more lacklustre performance against the stock market,” Rowles said.
