James Carthew: ouch! Watch out for key manager risk
Events of the past couple of weeks have highlighted the impact that the departure of a manager can have on the rating of a trust. First, we heard that Carlos Hardenberg is to leave Franklin Templeton and then Philip Rodrigs was ousted from River & Mercantile.
Both events were unexpected and both appear to have perturbed investors, although it is hard to gauge the true impact as these events occurred at the same time as the market wobble.
Hardenberg’s departure was announced on 1 February. The discount on Templeton Emerging Markets (TEM) widened from 9.5% to 11.2% on the day and was 13% on 6 February.
I wrote about the trust in June 2016 not long after Hardenberg had officially taken over and shaken up its portfolio. The changes he implemented made a real difference to… read more here
Investment Trust Insider on key manager risk