Fund manager Dan Whitestone has left BlackRock just two months after the Throgmorton investment trust he ran merged with BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC).
BRSC said Whitestone, who had become co-manager of the £791m trust, had “decided to leave BlackRock to take some time away from the industry”.
Roland Arnold, who was the trust’s manager before the merger, will continue to have sole responsibility for BRSC. He will replace Whitestone as head of BlackRock’s emerging companies team and be supported by its three portfolio managers, including Matt Betts, who will provide “input and ideas” for the non-UK stocks in the portfolio.
Whitestone had been at BlackRock for 13 years and also ran its £222m BlackRock Emerging Companies Absolute Return fund with Betts. Before joining BlackRock he worked in equity sales at UBS and Noble for six years.
The proposal to merge BRSC and Throgmorton was announced in February when it received the backing of Saba Capital, the activist hedge fund that at the time held 18% of Throgmorton and 10.4% of BRSC.
BRSC shares eased 0.5% to £13.05 on a discount of around 13% to net asset value.
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