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[ COMEBACK KINGS ]
Cherry Reynard names three fund managers who have bounced back
from a potentially career-ending chain of events
The comeback kids
F
und management has its
fair share of former stars
who have descended into
obscurity, but what about
those who have proved to be made
of sterner stuff? Who are investment
management’s comeback kids?
The line between a comeback kid
and an also-ran is thin. Let’s not
forget that Neil Woodford was once
seen as the ultimate comeback
king. With hindsight, his decision to
avoid tech companies in the face of
disproportionate valuations in the
late 1990s looked insightful, but it
could have easily gone another way.
The anti-tech bet didn’t work out so
well for Tony Dye of Phillips & Drew.
There are many reasons why a fund
manager experiences a return to
form – either from a period of poor
performance or relative obscurity.
One that crops up regularly is the
move from a large fund management
group to a boutique, where they may
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be able to spread their wings, manage
less money and do so according to
their own philosophy.
Not a foregone conclusion
There are plenty of examples where
managers have shaken off the
strictures of a large organisation and
done well on their own. Paul Marriage
at Tellworth Investments, for
example, or Richard Pease at CRUX.
This can go either way, of course.
Woodford is an extreme example of
how it doesn’t always work out.
Equally, there will be managers
whose high-octane style condemns
them to periods of lacklustre returns,
while others that are strongly biased
to either growth or value will struggle
to transcend a strong market bias one
way or another.
Here are three fund managers that
have “come back from the dead”.
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