Ninety One has announced that Steven Woolley, co-portfolio manager on the Ninety One UK Special Situations fund, has returned to the firm’s research arm.  This move now sees co-manager and Head of Value, Alessandro Dicorrado, as sole manager of the fund.

Mr Woolley has been appointed head of research for the Ninety One Value team, where he will focus on screening, idea generation, monitoring and setting of the research agenda within the team.  The other members of the Value team all provide input into the decision-making process.

There will be no changes to the investment philosophy and process.  As a reminder, Ninety One UK Special Situations is a contrarian UK equity fund that is managed according to a distinctive value strategy.  The team looks to understand why conventional wisdom may be wrong, in doing so seeking to invest in companies that are priced at a significant discount to their true worth.  The fund is suited to investors with a long-term mindset who can tolerate the idiosyncratic nature of the risk/return profile.

The fund remains on our Recommended list and, according to our usual process, we will be holding meetings in the coming weeks to discuss developments in greater depth.