M&G Global Basics fund manager Graham French is to leave the group, Investment Week can reveal, as he retires from fund management after a 25-year career.
Deputy manager Randeep Somel, who has worked with French for the past five years, takes over management of the £4.2bn portfolio with immediate effect.
French will remain as an adviser to Somel for the next six months, M&G said.
The fund has suffered a prolonged period of underperformance over the past 18 months and beyond, for which French apologised last month.
The manager (pictured) has run the portfolio since 2000, having been with M&G since 1989. Somel has spent the last nine years at M&G on the global desk.
Exposure to the struggling commodities and mining sectors hurt returns, especially during 2012. French subsequently cut back exposure to these areas, but the fund's performance has yet to recover.
The manager said there were some days last year when he "felt like putting [my] head under a duvet and not getting up in the morning".
He added investors wanting greater exposure to financials or technology should "look at other funds" rather than waiting for such a shift to occur in Global Basics.
M&G Global Basics has returned 3.7% over the year to 8 November, according to Morningstar, compared with an IMA Global sector average of 22.9%.
Over three years the fund has lost 0.9% compared with a sector average return of 25.8%.
"After nearly 25 years with M&G, the time has come to pass the baton to the next generation of fund manager," said French. "I can retire in the knowledge that I leave the shareholders in Global Basics in the very capable hands of Randeep.
"Randeep and I have worked alongside each other for more than five years. He knows the portfolio intimately and is therefore ideally placed to be the next steward of the Global Basics concept of thematic investment."
