Former head of Australian equities at abrdn, Michelle Lopez, has joined a boutique fund manager in New Zealand.
Lopez left abrdn earlier this year after 18 years when the firm sold its Australian equities arm to SG Hiscock.
She has now taken a role at New Zealand-based boutique fund manager Pie Funds, although she remains in Sydney.
At Pie, she was head of the firm’s Australasian investment team and lead portfolio manager on the Australasian Growth 2 Fund and co-portfolio manager for the Australasian Emerging Fund with Kent Williams.
The Growth 2 objective was to deliver long-term capital growth by investing in smaller and medium growth companies listed in Australia and New Zealand while those Emerging holdings are those “very small companies” of less than $150 million in Australia and New Zealand.
She was also responsible for the implementation of the Australasian investment strategy, portfolios and team.
Pie offers four Australasian Growth funds, three Global Growth funds, and two diversified ones.
abrdn’s agreement with SGH saw SGH set up a dedicated team to distribute the firm’s international funds to the Australian market. The local capabilities of abrdn’s Australian equity investment management were transferred to SGH.
Three investment professionals from the abrdn Australian equity team joined SGH to form an eight-person investment team and portfolio manager Hamish Tadgell is the lead manager.
The abrdn Ex-20 Australian Equities Fund was renamed the SGH Ex-20 Australian Equities Fund and the abrdn Australian Small Companies Fund was renamed as SGH Australian Small Companies Fund.
The Small Companies Fund is managed by abrdn investment manager, Shawn Lee, while the Ex-20 Australian Equities Fund is managed by Tadgell.
