Brunner (BUT), the global sector company, which counts on healthcare and financial services as its two largest sector allocations, has announced that Lucy Macdonald has stepped down as manager of the trust. Matthew Tillett, who BUT says has worked closely with Lucy on Brunner for a number of years, will be the new lead manager, supported by global equity managers Jeremy Kent, a long standing member of Lucy’s team, and Marcus Morris-Eyton, a long standing member of the European Growth team of Allianz Global Investors (AGI), BUT’s investment manager.
BUT notes that the changes are a consequence of the decision by AGI to create a new global growth team to manage global equity products led by Thorsten Winkelmann,
Revenue reserve support to dividend to kick-in
Carolan Dobson, chair of the company, commented: “We would like to thank Lucy for the huge contribution that she has made to help us get the company to where we are now. BUT is in a good place. The discount has narrowed significantly over the last few years and we have steadily increased the proportion of our shares held by wealth managers and platforms which now stands at around 40%. This in part has been due to our continued commitment to deliver long term growth in capital and income through an investment strategy of high conviction and investment in quality, global growth companies.
“As an AIC dividend hero with rising dividends for 47 consecutive years, we believe in the benefits of delivering steady dividend growth. Prudent management of the company’s revenue account has left the company in the strong position of having 28.6p of revenue reserves per share compared to last year’s dividend of 19.98p and the board expects to at least maintain this level of dividend in this financial year.“
Matthew Tillett
Matthew is the lead portfolio manager on the UK Opportunities strategy, which he has run since 2011. Matthew joined AllianzGI in 2006 as part of the Global Graduate Program. In 2007 he joined the Research Department as a pan-European media analyst and in 2008 he moved to portfolio management as part of the UK Equity Team. Prior to joining AllianzGI, Matthew worked at Datamonitor and the Office for National Statistics. He graduated from Bristol University with a first class degree in Economics and Economic History. He also holds a masters (with distinction) in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. Matthew holds the IMC designation and is a CFA® charterholder.
BUT: Lucy Macdonald steps down as manager of Brunner
bye lucy!
Was she sacked ?
Not to our knowledge but, in truth, it is impossible for us to know. Lucy headed up the global equities for some 19 years, having joined Allianz in 2001, and is well-regarded. She did leave as part of a restructuring, which was taking place at that time, but her departure may well have been at her behest and, after such a lengthy and distinguished service, hopefully she was well paid to do so. (Note: in the restructuring, Allianz combined the global equity team that Lucy headed up with with its European growth expertise to create a global growth team led by Thorsten Winkelmann.)