Quilter Investors has booted Newton Investment Management off its UK Equity Growth mandate and replaced it with Blackrock.
Nick Little (pictured), who currently manages the £495.8m Blackrock UK fund, has been named lead manager on the £232.3m portfolio, which had been managed by Newton since 2017.
The firm said it had selected Blackrock because it “offers access to an alternative and experienced team with a disciplined investment process within the UK growth space”.
“BlackRock has been a global partner for a number of years now, so we know they can produce sustainable growth over the long-term for our clients and investors,” said Quilter Investors CEO and head of investments Paul Simpson.
“We are delighted to welcome Nick Little to our UK Equity Growth mandate and are excited to see where he takes the portfolio.”
Blackrock appointment feels like a shift in approach
AJ Bell head of active portfolios Ryan Hughes said Quilter’s review may have been prompted by Chris Smith’s departure from Newton earlier this year.
Smith, who left to take over Steve Davies’ £985m Jupiter UK Growth fund, had been a co-manager on the BNY Mellon UK Opportunities fund, which Hughes notes was run similarly to the UK Equity Growth mandate.
He said replacing Newton with Blackrock feels like a shift in approach for Quilter. While the Blackrock UK fund has more of an “old fashioned” blend of large, mid and small cap stocks and is less concentrated, the Newton UK team has a distinct large-cap focus.
The Quilter Investors UK Equity Growth fund comprises around 35 to 55 FTSE 350 growth companies and has some international exposure.
Little has come out of the shadow of Richard Plackett
Quilter Investors UK Equity Growth has lost 10.1% on a one-year view against the average IA UK All Companies fund which was down 10.9%, but over three years it ranks in the first quartile with returns of 2.0% versus the sector’s losses of 5.8%.
Since the coronavirus slump kicked off on 20 February the fund did marginally better than the sector average, with the fund down 15.0% versus the IA UK All Companies’ losses of 17.1%.
Little’s Blackrock UK fund, which is also in the sector, was only down 7.0% over the period. His fund has also posted stronger gains than the sector over one and three years of 0.2% and 16.5% respectively.
Hughes said it took a while for Little and the Blackrock UK team to “come out of the shadow” of Richard Plackett who retired in 2015. But since then he notes the team has managed to capture some of its small and mid-cap outperformance which has driven returns across the UK range.
Newton declined to comment.
