Sanford Deland (SDL) Asset Management has unveiled the manager to replace Rosemary Banyard on the Free Spirit fund, Portfolio Adviser can reveal.
Investment research analyst Andrew Vaughan has been promoted to fund manager on the £7.5m fund, the firm announced on Monday.
Vaughan joined SDL in 2017 working on the Free Spirit and £1.2bn Buffettology funds. He has more than 20 years’ experience in selecting investments in line with SDL’s ‘business perspective investing’ approach which starts from the belief there is no philosophical distinction between part ownership and outright ownership of a company.
SDL described Vaughan’s appointment as a “natural progression”, saying he has been contributing research ideas to the Free Spirit portfolio since soon after the fund’s inception in January 2017.
Banyard stepped down from managing Free Spirit in the autumn for personal reasons. She had joined SDL in late 2016 having spent 18 years at Schroders, where she worked closely with Andy Brough.
SDL chief executive Alex Brotherston said: “Andrew’s experience in business perspective investing is a great asset to SDL and bringing that long term, buy and hold investing approach to Free Spirit is a natural progression for that fund as we continue to build out the investment capabilities at SDL.”
Vaughan said:“Business perspective investing has proved its worth over many years and I am excited to be bringing this methodology to Free Spirit. There are some great opportunities to be found within the UK small and mid-cap space.”
Last month SDL announced the hire of WH Ireland’s deputy head of institutional research, Eric Burns, as its chief analyst. Burns will join the firm on 1 January to lead stock research analysis for Buffettology and Free Spirit.
The Free Spirit fund has returned investors 38.6% since inception on 3 January 2017, compared with 18.5% for the IA UK All Companies sector.
SDL is also looking to launch a global version of the Buffettology fund.
