Investment giant Legal & General to vote against combined chair and chief executive roles February 3, 2020 Legal & General’s investment arm will vote against combined chief executive and board chairman roles globally, taking on business giants including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Blackrock’s Larry Fink. Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), one of the largest investment companies in the world with over £1 trillion under management, announced the change as part of [...]
St James’s Place overhauls pay and perks after scrutiny February 2, 2020 St James’s Place is set to overhaul its pay and perks programmes following intense scrutiny of the incentives offered to partners, including cruises and white-gold cufflinks. Bosses at Britain’s largest wealth manager have told staff the changes will reward “the right behaviours” and go beyond recognising sales made in a single year, according to the [...]
Chairs of public companies think they would be ‘better off’ at private firms January 29, 2020 Many chairs of public companies in the UK believe they would be “better off” at private firms given the regulatory burdens and intense scrutiny faced by listed businesses, according to a major investor group. The Investor Forum, whose 50 members control £18.5 trillion assets, said the continued rush of private money into the unlisted market [...]
Quilter claws its way back to net inflows but re-platforming nerves hit January 29, 2020 Wealth manager Quilter said it returned to net inflows by the end of 2019, reversing three consecutive quarters of outflows, but overall flows still lagged behind the previous year. Quilter, which was spun out from Old Mutual in June 2018, said flows remained “subdued” in the fourth quarter of 2019 amid adviser nerves about the [...]
Brewin Dolphin chief executive David Nicol to leave wealth manager January 29, 2020 Brewin Dolphin has announced that David Nicol will retire as chief executive of the wealth manager in June. Nicol, who has been with the company for eight years, will be replaced by Robin Beer, who currently runs Brewin Dolphin’s intermediaries, charity, professional services and digital businesses. Chairman Simon Miller thanked Nicol for his “outstanding contribution [...]
Star stockpicker apologises for ‘having too much’ Wirecard stock January 28, 2020 Former Jupiter fund manager Alexander Darwall has apologised to investors for making too large a bet on fintech Wirecard, which is facing scrutiny over its accounting practices. At one point Darwall, who left Jupiter in July to establish his own fund management business, had over 17 per cent of his £1bn investment trust in the [...]
Investors in Neil Woodford’s frozen flagship fund get first payout January 28, 2020 Hundreds of thousands of investors trapped in the flagship fund of disgraced stockpicker Neil Woodford are facing steep losses, as details emerge of the first payout since the fund was gated in June. Initial payments of between 46.3p and 58.9p per share will be made to investors, administrator Link Fund Solutions said in an update [...]
Gresham House boosted by strong organic growth as investors look to real assets January 27, 2020 Alternative asset manager Gresham House said it was boosted by strong organic growth in 2019, with assets under management (AUM) rising over 20 per cent despite market volatility. In a trading update issued this morning, Gresham House’s said its AUM reached at least £2.75bn by the end of 2019. Trading and financial performance in the [...]
UK active fund managers suffer bruising 2019 January 26, 2020 UK-domiciled investment funds suffered £17bn net outflows in 2019, with active managers enduring a particularly punishing year amid a series of industry scandals and stiff competition from passive tracker funds. Invesco, Aberdeen Asset Management and M&G topped a ranking of Britain’s worst selling fund houses for the year, according to figures from financial data provider [...]
Liquidity concerns mount as investors pull £1bn from Mark Barnett’s Invesco funds January 22, 2020 Investors pulled at least £1bn from Invesco funds managed by Mark Barnett in the final quarter of 2019 amid mounting concerns over liquidity following the collapse of Neil Woodford’s investment empire. Estimates from financial data provider Morningstar suggest the three funds managed by Barnett — Invesco Income, High Income, and UK Strategic Income — suffered [...]