Foreign & Colonial IT brings Japan portfolio back in-house

The £1.9bn Foreign & Colonial investment trust has brought management of its Japan mandate back in-house to F&C after removing Goldman Sachs.

Jeremy Tigue, manager of the trust, outsourced the portfolio to Goldman Sachs Asset Management five years ago, following a period of poor performance by F&C's Japan desk. However, the in-house team is now ahead of the sector's median performance over one, three and five years.

Tigue says F&C's active investment approach allows for greater flexibility than Goldman Sachs' quantitative approach.

"The point is that after 20 years of underperformance, at some stage Japan will have some good performance, and by making this change we are more likely to be able to spot this and do something about it," he says.