Bellevue fund manager Dr Daniel Koller to step back from BB Healthcare – Dr Daniel Koller, head of investments at Switzerland-based healthcare specialist, Bellevue, is to scale back his involvement with BB Healthcare Trust (BBH) and focus on the core Zurich-based BB Biotech AG (BION) company.
Dr Koller’s Step back from BB Healthcare is a planned move
Bellevue have said that the scaling back of Dr Koller’s involvement with BBH was a planned move. It was always intended that this would happen as the trust evolved following its listing in 2016. Perhaps this is niot so surprising. BB Biotech, which has a secondary listing in London, is the much larger fund with a market cap of CHF3.75bn. Bellevue has confirmed that it will continue to provide in depth support to the Trust. and Paul Major and Brett Darke, both based in London, will continue to lead the advisory team to BBH.
While BB Biotech has performed extremely well over the past decade , the past year has been more challenging for its portfolio companies, which are all based in the US. Sentiment has improved in 2019 so far, with BION’s shares up 12.7% in CHF terms. A more accommodative US federal reserve, and some revival in the healthcare M&A space, have helped investors take a more sanguine view on the industry.
Dr Koller is stepping back from BBH at a time where the trust is performing well. Both its share price and NAV have thoroughly outperformed the benchmark MSCI world health index over the past year. The shares and NAV are both up by close to 31.5% while the index has returned 9.6%.
About BB Healthcare
London listed BB Healthcare Trust aims to provide shareholders with capital growth and income over the long term, through investment in listed or quoted global healthcare companies. It seeks to:
- beat the total return of the MSCI World Healthcare Index (in sterling) on a rolling 3 year period (the index total return including dividends reinvested on a net basis); and
- generate a double-digit total shareholder return per annum over a rolling 3 year period.
More information is available at the trust’s website: www.bbhealthcaretrust.com
BBH/BION: Bellevue fund manager Dr Daniel Koller to step back from BB healthcare