On 26^th April 2018, AXA IM announced that Nigel Thomas, the long-standing lead manager of AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities, will retire in March 2019.  The fund features on our Recommended list. 

His successor will be Chris St John, manager of the AXA Framlington UK Mid Cap fund, which is also featured within The Adviser Centre as a Recommended fund.    He also manages an offshore fund, the AXA WF Framlington UK fund, which is a multi-cap mandate with a similar remit to AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities.

Mr St John is currently the deputy manager of AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities and will take over as lead manager on 31^st December 2018.  He joined AXA Framlington in 2005 and he has a particularly strong background in analysing and managing small and mid-cap UK equities.

The Framlington Equities UK investment team is well-resourced and operates with a strong team culture.  AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities is invested in equities from across the market-cap spectrum and managed without benchmark constraints.  Over time, it demonstrates a growth style bias, with the managers seeking to invest in companies that are expected to produce above-average growth in earnings and cash returns on invested capital.  Importantly, their search for growth is not undertaken at the expense of valuation parameters.  Although the managers’ bottom-up stock analysis is the driving force of the process, they also make use of top-down macro-economic research to identify themes and trends that are key to market growth over the long-term.

Following this news, the fund remains on our Recommended list.  Based upon our knowledge of Mr St John and the other members of the UK investment team, we see this as a logical succession plan.  According to our research process, we will continue to monitor the fund and hold face-to-face meetings with the managers over the coming year, focusing upon the continuity of investors’ expectations.