New BlackRock Smaller Companies trust manager eschews wholesale changes

Retaining 'high-quality' growth bias

BlackRock's "team-based" approach means there is unlikely to be huge portfolio turnover in its BlackRock Smaller Companies trust (BRSC), according to new lead manager Roland Arnold.

Arnold, who has led BRSC's sister open-ended fund since 2015, replaced 14-year veteran Mike Prentis on the trust in June. Arnold had been Prentis's co-manager since May 2018, having joined BlackRock in 2000. BlackRock's Prentis to retire as Arnold steps up "No portfolio exists in a bubble of just one manager, so when Mike left it was not a case of there being a whole lot of stocks we wanted to [change]," Arnold told Investment Week. "We tend to see the same companies and have the same investment philosophy, so it is highly likely that a big position in this trust would already b...