Harris and Heron axed as Henderson merges funds
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Henderson Global Investors has made star multi-manager duo Mark Harris and Craig Heron redundant after proposing to merge five multi-manager funds.
The plans will see the £10m American portfolio merged with the £372m North Amer- ican enhanced equity fund managed by Robert Villiers.
The £23m Asia portfolio will merge with the £150m Asia Pacific capital growth fund, managed by Andrew Beale, while the £37m European portfolio will merge with Richard Pease’s £818m European growth fund.
Henderson’s £61m multi-manager tactical and £188.2m multi-manager balanced funds will be merged into the £441m active fund and £136m managed fund respectively, with both funds managed by Bill McQuaker, who recently step-ped down as head of equities.
Harris and Heron, who manage a total of £791m, joined Henderson as part of the acquisition of New Star Asset Management in 2009. Henderson recently appointed multi-manager Tony Lanning from Gartmore as part of the Gartmore acquisition, which is set to be completed at the end of the first quarter.
Between them, Harris and Heron managed a total of seven multi-manager offerings and continued to have a str- ong adviser following despite poor performance in the past few years. Six of the pair’s seven funds are fourth quartile over three years, with the Henderson Asia portfolio third quartile over three years.
Harris and Heron had seen improved figures in the past 12 months, with the European portfolio, multi-manager balanced and the cautious portfolio, which was already set to be merged with the income and growth fund, all top quartile.
McQuaker says: “This is an opportunity to make our range of multi-manager funds more relevant to investors. The primary focus for the Henderson multi-manager team will be on what we believe are the key sectors for multi-manager funds - active, balanced and cautious managed. Funds in these sectors form the core of many investors’ long-term portfolios.”
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