SLI to replace Robertson on Equity Income Trust next year

Thomas Moore has been appointed co-manager of Standard Life Investments £107m Equity Income Trust alongside Karen Robertson, ahead of a move to make him lead manager next year.

Moore is currently manager of the £57m SLI UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund. His fund has outperformed Robertson's £756m UK Equity High Income fund over the last three years, delivering 61.4% to investors against Robertson's 30% return.

Robertson's fund has also underperformed the UK Equity Income sector average, which delivered 37.4% over three years.

Meanwhile the Trust has returned 44.57% over three years against a 52.51% sector average, and lost -7.69% in the last year, against a gain of 2.46% for the sector, according to Morningstar.

SLI said Moore's appointment as co-manager had not been made because of the performance of the trust.

Moore joined SLI in 2002 and has been working alongside Robertson on her portfolio for the past two years.

SLI said he would become lead manager on the trust over the course of next year.

'Thomas has assisted Karen Robertson with the management of the company's portfolio for the past two years, attending both board meetings and the annual general meeting, and regularly presenting to existing and potential shareholders,' the board said.

According to SLI, Moore will not shake up the portfolio's current positioning but will make some changes to the fund's strategy, including a move to make it less index constrained.

"Currently the Trust's absolute performance is primarily linked to the performance of the major FTSE stocks. Tom will place more emphasis on the team's best investment ideas. This may at times lead to a higher weighting in the FTSE 250 which has historically proved to be more robust than the FTSE 100 in growing dividends over the past decade," said a spokesperson.