Manager Research

Prescient announced a further change to their investment team with the resignation of their Deputy Head of Fixed Income, Jean-Pierre du Plessis (JP). JP will remain with the business until the end of December 2018, where after he will be heading up fixed income at Laurium Capital.

We have already commented on the changes to the senior investment team at Prescient earlier in the year. JP’s departure is a further loss to the institutional knowledge and pool of experience at Prescient. The ongoing team changes at Prescient is a concern to us, and we need to see some stability return to the investment team over the next year or two. Prescient have introduced changes to their staff remuneration with specific focus on staff retention, but it remains to be seen whether this works in practice.

However, JP isn’t involved in the management of the Prescient Income Provider fund, rather focusing on their global income capability. Prescient has also been adding new members to the team to ensure adequate capacity from a research coverage perspective. CIO Guy Toms’ continues to be the lead portfolio manager on the fund and his continued involvement gives us the confidence that the process will remain unchanged during this time.

While the significant staff changes are far from ideal, we have retained our Tier 1 rating on Prescient Income Provider.