Standard & Poor’s Fund Services (S&P) has lowered its rating on the Perpetual Wholesale Concentrated Equity Fund (CEF) from five to four stars and removed its ‘on hold’ rating, following the announcement that portfolio manager John Sevior is taking leave.
The fund will be managed by Paul Skamvougeras, portfolio manager of Perpetual’s long/short Australian-equities fund, during Sevior’s planned six-month absence, S&P stated.
The downgrade was based on a lack of certainty that Sevior would resume managing the portfolio, and a lower level of conviction in Skamvougeras as manager of the fund, according to S&P Fund Services analyst Tom Mills.
“While we acknowledge that Sevior may resume management of the fund in January 2012, we note that Perpetual has not ruled out Skamvougeras continuing to manage the fund beyond this date,” Mills said.
“Although we consider Skamvougeras to be a very capable investor, we note that his portfolio management experience to date has been in long/short strategies with far lower levels of funds under management [FUM].”
The fund has reduced in size significantly since Skamvougeras had been managing it, largely due to redemptions and institutional clients reallocating to other Perpetual strategies resulting in a more manageable level of FUM, providing greater comfort over its capacity, S&P stated.
“Despite our lowered conviction in the CEF, we remain comfortable with Perpetual’s well-proven process, and the breadth and depth of its large and experienced team, which has significant input into portfolio composition,” Mills said.
