AJ Bell has ditched the £5.2bn BNY Mellon Global Income fund from its managed portfolio service and its favourite funds list as manager Nick Clay is set to leave alongside three of his team members.
Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, said the departure of Mr Clay along with his co-manager Andrew MacKirdy and two analysts had left a “very large hole” in the team at BNY.
He said: “Mr Clay had been associated with the fund for many years, firstly as a deputy manager and then as the lead for the past five years and therefore his departure sees a huge amount of experience walk out of the door.
“We have removed the ‘buy’ rating from the fund and taken it out of our portfolios and off the favourite funds list.”
Last week FTAdviser reported Mr Clay, head of Newton Investment Management’s equity income team, was to leave Newton IM — an investment management subsidiary of BNY Mellon — with three of his colleagues.
Yesterday it emerged the team would move to boutique fund manager RWC Partners in what was described as a “great hire” for the firm.
AJ Bell has replaced the BNY Mellon Global Income fund with the Evenlode Global Income fund for its income portfolio in its managed portfolio service.
The £600m Evenlode fund is run by Ben Peters and has beaten its peers in the IA Global Equity Income sector over the past year. It is ranked position 12 out of 54 in the sector over the past 12 months.
AJ Bell has also added the Evenlode fund and the Troy Global Income fund to its favourite funds list. Troy’s £206m fund has beaten its peers over a one-, three- and five-year period and is ranked fifth out of the 54 funds in the sector over the past year.
The BNY Mellon fund also has strong performance, beating the sector average over the same time periods and ranking 19th over the past year. Over the past five years, it is the second best performer in the IA Global Equity Income sector.
Mr Hughes said: “Both Evenlode and Troy are managers we know very well as we currently use the UK version of the global funds.
“Both managers have a focus on high quality companies that generate sustainable cashflow, something that could prove to be very important in these challenging times.”
At BNY Mellon, Ilga Haubelt, previously head of equity opportunities at Newton, will take over as head of equity income at the firm.
The news of Mr Clay’s departure had already caused ratings services such as FundCalibre and Square Mile to strip the BNY Mellon Global Income fund of its star rating.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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