Manager Research

Allan Gray Australia announced on 31 May 2017 that two senior members of their investment team will be leaving the firm - Dan Abeshouse and Anna Lopatnikova.  They will be replaced by new analysts, James (Yi Chan) Lee and Gitendra Pradhananga.  Allan Gray Australia have always shown 4 people as senior investment staff: Simon Mawhinney, Dan Abeshouse, Anna Lopatnikova and Suhas Nayak and so the loss is apparently significant.  However, since the sad passing of Simon Marais around two years ago, Simon Mawhinney has managed the majority of client assets and his allocation has now increased further, following these departures.  So, there is a reasonable argument that there is investment decision making continuity here.  But, equally, the team at Allan Gray are first and foremost analysts and so they will miss the research done by the two staff who are leaving.  Equally, the new replacements are new and typically from outside of the investment industry – from backgrounds in hard sciences.  So, they will need time to fill the shoes of Dan and Anna.  

It will also seem to the skeptical eye that the departure of two people, coinciding with the appointment of two others is more than a coincidence.  So, we suspect the two are linked, indicating that this may have been, in part, an expected move.  What is our take?  We are concerned about succession in the firm and whether Simon is creating an environment, as CEO and CIO, that allows good investment people to thrive.  We will monitor this and have a few calls lined up with the team to discuss this further.  We will let you know once we know more.