Manager Research
all members of our manager research team have over ten years of investment experience.
We recently reviewed the Allan Gray Australia Equity and Stable funds and retained their Tier 2 rating allocations.
The investment team has been undergoing ongoing change since the tragic passing of Allan Gray Australia founder and CIO, Simon Marais, in 2015. Three senior investment professionals have left the business since last year, including:
- Richard Whiteoak, an analyst, who left in 2016
- Dan Abeshouse, who managed approximately 20% of the equity fund, left in 2017
- Anna Lopatnikova, a senior analyst, left in 2017
This business runs highly differentiated and contrarian portfolios and therefore the net loss of experience to the investment team is substantial. They also prefer to train analysts in-house, so the team takes a long time to build up. We are comfortable with CIO Simon Mawhinney as custodian of the process, however, we are concerned about the level of support he receives from the rest of the current team.
We have retained the Tier 2 rating given that Simon and other key staff members’ are remaining with the business, however, we will be monitoring the developments in the investment team closely going forward.
Review of the Allan Gray Australia Funds
15 Aug 2017