Aberdeen multi-managers ditch Martin Currie's Walker

Aberdeen’s multi-manager team have sold out of their position in Tom Walker’s £677m Martin Currie North American fund and made a string of changes to their Ethical portfolio.

The team have introduced the Brown Advisory US Growth fund to the £90m MM Constellation portfolio, a 5% weighting which replaces a 4.3% holding in the Martin Currie North American fund.

"Tom Walker has had a difficult time with his bias towards commodities and consumers", said co-head of multi-manager Graham Duce. "We did hold quite a bit in his fund quite a while ago, but have been trimming that and have now sold out completely within Constellation".

The US Growth fund has also been introduced into Aberdeen's £29m MM International Growth portfolio. The team has pared its holding in the £2.2bn M&G American fund from 14% to 8% to make way for the new position.

"The Brown Advisory fund is part of our blending exercise and introduces a much stronger growth aspect to our US holdings. It is very much a growth, large-cap quality-oriented offering. We have introduced it as we felt we perhaps had too much of a value slant," said Duce.

The multi-managers have also overhauled their £32m Ethical portfolio, initiating positions in GLG and Henderson funds and selling out of Mike Fox's £318m CIS Sustainable Leaders trust.

Duce said the decision was based on both performance and the way technology exposure is managed within Fox's portfolio. Proceeds have been reinvested in the £243m Henderson Global Innovation fund and the newly-launched GLG Global Sustainability fund.

"The Sustainability fund is not normally one you would associate with GLG, but the manager, Jason Mitchell, used to work very closely with [GLG founder] Pierre Lagrange - it is a strong endorsement to bring him back to the company. He is very performance-oriented and very determined to grow the fund."

The GLG offering now constitutes 8% of the Ethical portfolio, with Henderson Global Innovation accounting for a similar proportion.

As well as selling out of Fox's fund, the team have trimmed back some of their exposure to the Jupiter Ecology fund in order to accommodate the new positions.

A 6% position in Sustainable Asset Management's €910m Sustainable Water fund, meanwhile, has been switched to SAM's €140m Sustainable Healthy Living fund in order to reduce some of the portfolio's cyclicality.