Fidelity Special Values investment trust is replacing its manager, Sanjeev Shah, "in accordance with his wishes." The move will allow Mr Shah to focus solely on managing the open-ended Fidelity Special Situations fund. He took on management of both these funds in 2008 after the retirement of their previous manager, Anthony Bolton, who had a strong performance record with the Special Values trust and delivered outstanding returns with Fidelity Special Situations.
But Mr Bolton proved a hard act to follow. The performance of both funds has struggled in recent years, with Fidelity Special Values underperforming both the average UK growth investment trust and FTSE All-Share over three years in terms of net asset value (NAV) and share price return. The trust also trades at a discount approaching 14 per cent, although this is still tighter than a number of trusts in the sector.
Alex Wright, manager of Fidelity UK Smaller Companies, an open-ended fund, will take over Fidelity Special Values on 1 September. He has had tremendous success with Fidelity UK Smaller Companies which is among the top 10 performing funds in the Investment Management Association's UK Smaller Companies sector over one and three years.
Lynn Ruddick, chairman of Fidelity Special Values, says: "The board (of Fidelity Special Values) is keen to take greater advantage of opportunities for capital growth available from dynamic smaller and mid-cap companies and this is an area where Alex has demonstrated considerable success. We are excited at the opportunity for the trust to broaden its appeal to a wider group of shareholders who are seeking the security of quality large-cap stocks as well as the potentially higher growth of carefully researched smaller companies. Alex has a contrarian investment style, buying out-of-favour stocks with downside protection and unrecognised growth. This, combined with a preference for smaller and medium-sized companies, makes his investment approach an ideal fit for the trust."
