Invesco and Woodford protege Mark Barnett sacked by Perpetual Income and Growth
Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust has sacked Invesco fund manager Mark Barnett for underperformance, ending months of uncertainty.
Barnett, one of Neil Woodford’s former proteges, had run the trust for more than two decades. It is a further blow to the manager who was also sacked by Edinburgh Investment Trust at the end of last year.
Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust said the decision had not been taking lightly, particularly given the current market conditions. But the board had made it clear it was “concerned with the company’s poor performance.”
Chairman Richard Laing said: “The board had previously made it clear on several occasions that it was concerned with the company’s poor performance and further intensified scrutiny on the manager’s investment approach. We gave Invesco time to build on the early ‘Brexit Bounce’ that was anticipated, but this proved to be short-lived. “
It comes just days after Barnett was forced to apologise to investors over his performance after his £5.1bn high income and £2.7bn income funds were downgraded by Morningstar. It had cited concerns over the funds’ exposure to smaller and illiquid companies.
In a statement, Invesco said: “We are disappointed with the outcome of the Board’s decision in respect of our role as portfolio manager.”
“We understand the performance pressures that exist in today’s market, but since the half-year results we have embraced the board’s views on performance with improved results in the latter part of 2019, consistent with the principle-based approach we have always taken.”
“We are disappointed that we were unable to build on this, given the recent extreme volatility in financial markets.”
Ryan Hughes, AJ Bell’s head of active portfolios, said the news does not come as too much of a surprise given the “scale of the underperformance of the trust”.
“It clearly was of little comfort to the board that other value-focused investment trusts have suffered even more in the recent sell-off, while they also have clearly lost confidence in the manager’s ability to capitalise on any post-coronavirus bounce-back which will hopefully come once we emerge from the other side of this current crisis.”