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Standard & Poor’s Fund Services (S&P) has placed Challenger’s three property funds and two Australian share funds ‘on hold’ following several major announcements by the company.
The new status of the Australian share funds follows the announcement that newly created boutique Alphinity Investment Management will take over management of the two large-cap equity strategies, while the property funds have been put ‘on hold’ due to senior analyst Ben Dalling’s departure last Friday.
Dalling’s departure comes after former co-portfolio manager John White left the company at the end of March.
Separately, Challenger has advised that the strategic alliance between Challenger Managed Investments and Heitman LLC for global property securities has ended, and the strategy is most likely to be wound up in coming months.
S&P only recently reinstated the four-star rating on the Challenger Property Security Fund, but Dalling’s departure and ongoing discussions between the company and the team around changes to the team structure warranted it being placed ‘on hold’ again.
Portfolio manager John Longo and two analysts remain, while the announcement of Dalling’s replacement is expected in the coming weeks.
S&P will meet with the Challenger team once the future structure is clear and at the same time it will review the Challenger Wholesale Property Fund, which was placed ‘on hold’ following the transfer of management from Credit Suisse on 1 May, 2010.
Placement of these funds ‘on hold’ comes only a week after the company’s small-cap funds received the same status.
