Following the news of James Foster’s upcoming retirement and Alex Ralph’s departure from Artemis, we have removed Artemis Strategic Bond, Artemis High Income and Artemis Monthly Distribution from The Adviser Centre.  All three funds featured on our Recommended list.

James Foster, co-manager of the Artemis Strategic Bond fund and co-manager of the Artemis Monthly Distribution fund, is planning to retire at the end of 2021.  Alex Ralph, co-manager of the Artemis Strategic Bond fund and lead manager of the Artemis High Income fund, has left the firm.

Stephen Snowden, who joined Artemis in 2019 together with five colleagues from Kames Capital to manage new fixed income mandates, has become the firm’s Head of Fixed Income.  Artemis has released further information about the new team structure and fund responsibilities, as follows:

• Artemis Strategic Bond

This fund was co-managed by James Foster and Alex Ralph.  The new managers will be Juan Valenzuela and Rebecca Young.  Mr Valenzuela joined the firm in 2019 from Kames Capital, where he co-managed Kames’ strategic bond propositions.  Ms Young will be joining the firm in November 2021 from Janus Henderson.  She was a portfolio manager within the Strategic Fixed Income Team at Janus Henderson.  (While Artemis awaits Ms Young’s FCA registration, the intention is for Mr Valenuzela to be sole manager, working with Mr Snowden as deputy fund manager.)

• Artemis High Income

This fund was managed by Alex Ralph, with Ed Legget responsible for stock selection within the equity portion of the fund (typically a 20% allocation).  The new co-managers will be David Ennett and Jack Holmes, high yield bond specialists who joined Artemis in February 2019 from Kames Capital.  Mr Legget will continue to select the stocks for the equity portion of the fund.

• Artemis Monthly Distribution

This fund was co-managed by James Foster and Jacob de Tusch-Lec.  Stephen Baines will be the new co-manager, with responsibility for the fixed income portion of the fund (typically a 60% allocation).  Mr de Tusch-Lec will remain as the co-manager responsible for the equity portion (typically a 40% allocation).  Like his colleagues, Mr Baines joined Artemis in February 2019 from Kames Capital and is a high yield specialist.

Artemis has indicated that there will be no changes to the fund objectives and no material changes to the income/yield expectations.

We have known some members of the Fixed Income team for many years from their time at Artemis and Kames Capital, as well as other organisations.  Furthermore, we currently feature Artemis Corporate Bond, managed by Stephen Snowden and Grace Le, on our Recommended list.  Notwithstanding this, given the significance of these changes, we are taking the opportunity to carry out a full re-assessment of the three funds under the new fund management structures.