Following the news that Vincent Devlin, manager of BlackRock Continental European, is stepping away from portfolio management and research responsibilities, we have removed the fund from The Adviser Centre.

Henceforth, Stefan Gries and Giles Rothbarth, both members of BlackRock’s European equity team, headed by Nigel Bolton, have been appointed as portfolio managers on the fund. Mr Gries has 12 years’ experience and is currently co-manager on all portfolios in the strategy except the BlackRock Continental European fund, although he has extensive knowledge of the current portfolio.  Mr Rothbarth is a research analyst with 7 years’ experience and has been back-up portfolio manager for the BlackRock European Dynamic strategy for the last 2 years.

BlackRock has confirmed that there will be no changes to the fund’s current investment objective or guidelines.

We have high regard for Mr Bolton and the well-resourced European equity team at BlackRock but this significant change has lead us to withdraw the fund from The Adviser Centre.