Manager Research

We previously commented on Nedgroup's announcement of the pending change to the sub-adviser on the Nedgroup Investments Global Cautious Fund, see comment here. We received confirmation from Nedgroup that they have appointed Pyrford International as sub-adviser on the fund as Chartwell’s replacement. The fund will by managed to Pyrford's USD global absolute return strategy. Our team in the UK have rated the GBP version of the strategy Tier 1.

Pyrford is a UK based fund manager 100% owned by the Bank of Montreal (BMO). They manage around GBP7.3bn in assets, which makes them a "boutique" manager by international standards. The strategy is managed by a small centralised team under the leadership of CEO and CIO Tony Cousins. Tony is supported by a team of 12 investment professionals. The strategy is flexibly managed with a strong focus on valuation and identifying growth drivers in determining their asset allocation. The team has a strong aversion to capital loss and implements their views within an absolute return mindset.

The GBP fund does have a UK bias, but our team in the UK will be spending time with Pyrford next week to identify the nuances in the USD fund. We don’t expect there to be major differences between the strategies.

We will send an update once the review of the USD share class is complete.