Global equity portfolio announces Lazard as its new manager following the retirement of Simon Edelsten from Artemis after a decade running the portfolio.
By Michelle McGagh
Mid Wynd International (MWY) has switched its manager from Artemis to Lazard following the retirement of former manager Simon Edelsten.
Lazard managers Barnaby Wilson and Louis Florentin-Lee will assume responsibility for the £438m global equity portfolio later this year after the Mid Wynd board reviewed the investment management arrangements in light of Edelsten’s retirement and the departure of co-manager Alex Illingworth. Alex Stanić, who joined Artemis as head of global equities in March, replaced Edelsten.
The board said Lazard’s ‘global quality growth strategy’ aligned with the trust’s ethos, which includes investing at the right valuations in companies that ‘have the potential to compound investors’ capital at attractive and sustainable rates’.
‘The board believes the team behind the Lazard global quality growth strategy will continue with this approach to investment, which is considered to have stood company shareholders in good stead for so long,’ the board said in an announcement to the stock exchange.
Trust chair Russell Napier said the Lazard duo, who work together on the open-ended Lazard Global Quality Growth fund, had produced ‘strong performance through their disciplined approach and also a resilience of relative returns through very different market conditions’.
Lazard will receive an annual management fee of 0.4% of the market capitalisation of the trust up to £250m, reducing to 0.38% between £250m and £500m, and to 0.32% above £500m, with the fee waived by Lazard for the first three months under the new agreement. This compares with a 0.5% fee charged on the full capitalisation by Artemis.
Lazard chief executive Jeremy Taylor said the asset group and the trust ‘share a commitment to providing consistently excellent returns for our clients’.
‘Investing in companies with high financial productivity that trade at attractive valuations is a hallmark of our investment approach,’ he said.
‘We are pleased to be able to bring this to Mid Wynd’s extensive shareholder base and look forward to partnering with the Mid Wynd board with the aim to deliver strong investment results and increase shareholder value.’
There is an overlap in the portfolios of Mid Wynd and the Lazard Global Quality Growth fund, with tech behemoths Alphabet and Microsoft and luxury brand LVMH making it into the top five in both portfolios.
Artemis bowed out gracefully, with senior partner Mark Murray stating the group was ‘proud of the returns we have produced for the company’s shareholders since 2014’.
Over a 10-year period, Artemis delivered a return of 219.8% for investors versus a 214.1% increase in the average trust in the Numis Global Equity sector. It has also beaten the average fund over one, three and five years.
Over the past decade, the fund has delivered gross returns of 11.1% a year versus an 8.1% annual return for the MSCI World All Companies index.
Numis investment trust analyst Gavin Trodd said the personnel change at Artemis ‘clearly acted as a catalyst for the board fully assessing its options’.
While he said the investment style of Lazard ‘broadly aligns with Mid Wynd’s investment approach’, it is possible there will be ‘a period of elevated turnover as the new managers seek to put their stamp on the portfolio’.
‘The portfolio is currently managed through a thematic approach via a concentrated portfolio exposed to eight to 10 structural growth themes that can generate growth independently of the wider macroeconomic environment, generating strong free cashflow protected by high barriers to entry,’ said Trodd.
https://citywire.com/wealth-manager/new ... &utm_pos=2
I used to hold Mid Wynd but sold a year or two back.