Martin Currie to close Pan European Alpha after manager re-shuffle

Martin Currie is to close its £18m Pan European Alpha fund and named a new manager for its European fund to replace the departing Eric Woehrling.

The £18m Pan European Alpha portfolio was previously headed by Woehrling and co-manager Pal Chidambaram, but the group now intends to close it following Woehrling's departure.

The move comes after Martin Currie announced last week that it plans to convert the £17m European fund into a European Income fund.

The fund conversion is a result of the company's ongoing product strategy review, announced last year, which will see the company focusing more on global markets rather than domestic.

Chidambaram and fellow manager Ross Watson (pictured) will now run the European fund after Watson was given a co-manager role on the fund.

Watson has previously managed Martin Currie's £101.5m Securities Trust of Scotland, and has been running equity income for charities for a number of years.

Prior to Martin Currie, Watson worked for Aberdeen Asset Managers, where he managed the £385m Murray Income Trust amongst other funds. Before which, he ran high income UK equity portfolios for Gartmore.

The Martin Currie European fund has lost 16.3% over the past three months against the sector average loss of 15.6%, amid the harsh sell-off in Europe which has hammered markets.

The closure of the European Alpha fund and conversion of the European fund are subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.