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BlackRock is shaking up its UK equity fund range, with long-serving fund manager Nick Little leaving and Samantha Brownlee, investment director at Aberdeen, joining the company.
A BlackRock representative told FTA Advisor that Little will no longer manage funds at the company, although he is currently a BlackRock employee and is “exploring opportunities within and outside the firm”.
Little was originally hired by Merrill Lynch Investment Management in 2001, and has been at BlackRock since 2006, when the Merrill Lynch business was acquired by BlackRock.
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Brownlee joined Aberdeen 14 years ago as a graduate trainee and spent three years as a fund manager before moving into the role of investment director in 2018.
The move is part of a wider shake-up of the sprawling UK team at BlackRock, which is split into two groups, a “core” UK equity team and an “emerging UK companies” team.
Brownlee will work alongside Luke Chappell as part of the UK core equity team.
As part of the shake-up, the BGF United Kingdom fund will now be managed by a core equity team rather than a UK emerging companies team. The size of this fund is approximately £245mn.
The BFM UK Equity Fund will now be run by the UK Emerging Companies team and notably by the firm’s long-time equity manager Roland Arnold, who also manages the firm’s UK Special Situations and UK Smaller Companies funds. This is the fund that Little managed.
It has declined by 22 percent in the last one year till December 5.
The investment approach of both the funds remains the same.
A representative for BlackRock said: “In BlackRock’s fundamental equity business, we are constantly looking to ensure that our product offerings are aligned with the ever-changing demands of our clients and aligned with BlackRock’s long-term strategic growth priorities. We believe these changes will align our UK equity fund range with the evolving needs of our clients.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
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