Newton Investment Management has named Zoe Kan as lead manager of the £2.1 billion (€2.7 billion) Newton Asian Income fund.
Kan will be supported by Caroline Keen and Rob Marshall-Lee, head of the Emerging and Asian equities teams at Newton.
The firm will be looking to make back assets that the fund lost when Jason Pidcock, the fund’s previous manager, left Newton to join Jupiter Asset Management in May last year, where he helped launch a similar strategy that attracted some of his former clients. Assets in the Newton fund had been £4.4 billion before his departure.
However, investor sentiment has also turned against Japan in this time. According to Morningstar data, as of April 30, 2016, the Newton Asian Income fund has lost just over 2%, against an IA sector average of just over 11%.
Kan joined Newton in 2000, and has worked on the Asian Income fund since its launch in 2005. She also serves as co-manager on the Newton Emerging Income and BNY Mellon Emerging Equity Income funds.
A spokesperson for the firm said the fund’s investment philosophy would not change.
Kan’s elevation to fund manager means the world’s small pool of female fund managers is slightly enlarged. At the FundForum International event in Berlin earlier this week, AQ Metrics issued a report noting only 10% of the world’s fund managers were female.
©2016 funds europe
