Perpetual Investmentshas taken a step away from its key man approach to the management of its flagship Australian equities fund, the Perpetual Industrial Share Fund, in favour of a more holistic team philosophy.
The $5.2 billion fund, previously managed equally by long time portfolio managers John Savior and Peter Morgan, will now be managed by Savior and Morgan, as well as by a third portfolio manager, Matt Williams, and Perpetual’s team of equity analysts.
Sevior will keep responsibility for 50 per cent of the fund, while Morgan will now manage 40 per cent.
Williams, also the portfolio manager for Perpetual’s smaller companies funds, will take on 7 per cent of the fund, with the remaining 3 per cent to be managed collectively by Perpetual’s equity analysts.
Perpetual chief investment officer Emilio Gonzalez says the changes, to come into effect from today, were the logical next step to the portfolio management philosophy already employed by the Industrial Share Fund.
“Four years ago we split the [Industrial Share Fund] equally between two portfolio managers, John Sevior and Peter Morgan,” he says.
“[The changes are] a natural development making even better use of our resources.”
The Assirt research group today welcomed the move by Perpetual, saying it would allow the manger to build the depth of its team and plan for the ultimate departure of either Morgan or Sevior.
Assirt investment analyst Tania South says the changes would increase the fund’s potential for out performance, without critically diluting the influence of both Morgan and Sevior.
“The allocation of 10 per cent away from Morgan provides the opportunity to enhance returns of the fund by diversifying across portfolio managers, while limiting the potential deviation in returns away from those delivered by Sevior and Morgan to date,” she says.
The Industrial Share Fund returned 5.3 per cent for the year ending June 30, 2002, outperforming the S&P/ASX 200 index by around 10 per cent.
