Alliance Trust replaces managers on ailing Asian and Japan funds

Alliance Trust has placed new managers on its Asia Pacific Equity and Japan Equity funds in a bid to boost performance.

The new management is the last step in a series of changes, including bringing the ACD function in-house and shifting the management team from Hong Kong back to Dundee.

Since 1 October, Sam Ford and David Osfield have run the £48m Asia Pacific fund, while recently installed head of Asian equities Jonathan Bolton and Justin Atkinson manage the £29m Japan portfolio. The previous managers have left Alliance Trust.

Leigh Grubb, chief operating officer of the firm’s asset management arm, says the long-term underperformance of these funds led to a management review.

From 13 September 2006 to 30 September 2010, the Asia Pacific fund returned 6.2% versus the benchmark’s 13.96%, while the Japan fund fell 5.66% against a drop of 1.48% in the benchmark, according to Morningstar.

“The performance of these two funds was ultimately the factor that led to us closing down our Hong Kong office and bringing the management back to Scotland in 2008,” he said.

“We spent the past year putting together a new Asian equity team and looking at what we should do with these funds.”

Although Ford, Osfield, and Atkinson have no previous experience of running Asian equities, Grubb said they wanted to give less experienced team members the chance to prove themselves.

Ford and Osfield were previously UK equity analysts at Alliance Trust, while Atkinson has a corporate law background.

“This may be considered a leftfield approach to putting together a new team, but what we have done is brought in two new guys (Ford and Osfield) who were products of our company management training and have been with the company for a combined 10 years,” he said.

“They bring a huge amount of energy and we are really excited to give them a fresh opportunity. They will work closely with Bolton, who has more than 20 years’ experience in Asian equities.”