The surprise decision by Peter Hall to resign as chief investment officer (CIO) of Hunter Hall Global Value Limited (HHV) continues to play on ratings assessments of the business.
A number of ratings houses placed the fund manager under review following the surprise post-Christmas announcement by the company that Hall had tendered his resignation.
This prompted Independent Investment Research to announce two days’ later that it had suspended its investment rating for HHV and placed the LIC under review.
In announcing the Hall resignation, Hunter Hall told the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that he was obliged to serve out a six month notice period unless agreed otherwise.
The ASX announcement said this would ensure “that sufficient competent investment management staff experienced in funds management will have charge at all times of the conduct of, and will maintain close supervision of, the investment management of the portfolio”.
However Independent Investment Research said in its commentary that it “previously stated concerns about the turnover of personnel at HHV, although we were starting to become more comfortable that some stability was emerging”.
“The resignation of the managers’ high profile CIO is now a major concern. We acknowledge that the manager still has a strong investment team of eight in place and the deputy CIO, James McDonald, has considerable experience with 13 years at Hunter Hall,” it said. “However, we are suspending our rating for HHV until we have had a chance to meet with the manager and make a fuller assessment of the implications.”
The ratings house said it expected to release a further report after a full review in the new year.
