Miton Group's lead manager of the Psigma Income fund Bill Mott is to retire from the group and the fund management industry at Christmas.

Following the announcement that Miton Group's lead manager of the PSigma Income fund Bill Mott is to retire from the group and the fund management industry at Christmas, UK-listed wealth management and advisor firm Hargreaves Lansdown has said it was removing the fund from its Wealth 150 list whilst it monitors its performance.

Co-manager Eric Moore will be promoted to lead manager to replace Mott, Miton said in a statement. Mott will continue to be involved in the management of the fund until his retirement date.

Gervais Williams, who became co-manager of the fund at the end of last year, will continue in his role providing specialist mid- and small-cap experience.

Miton said that there will be no change to the investment objective of the fund or to its thematic investment approach. It will remain a predominantly mega-cap fund.

One of the best known equity fund managers in the UK, Mott made his name at Credit Suisse, where he spent nearly 30 years before joining PSigma in 2007.

“Bill has made an outstanding contribution to the fund management industry in the UK. Together with my fellow board members we would like to wish him a very happy retirement,” said executive chairman Ian Dighe.

Miton Group acquired PSigma in July last year, bringing in £749 million ($1.285 million) in assets under management.

Track record

Hargreaves Lansdown said in a statement that the PSigma Income Fund has been removed from the Wealth 150 list of its favourite funds for new investment following the announcement.

“Though we expect the fund to continue to be managed along the same lines, we believe it is prudent to remove the fund from the Wealth 150 while we monitor its performance under the new management,” said Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Bill Mott has been largely correct when it comes to his calls on the UK economy since the onset of the financial crisis, however our analysis suggests his lacklustre performance in recent years has been down to poor stock selection,” she added.

Hargreaves said in a statement that Mott's “astute ability” to identify long-term themes and his experience in calling the direction of the wider economy had attracted the firm to the fund and was the main reason for its inclusion on the Wealth 150.

“Over the past few years Bill Mott's economic views have, on balance, been correct. However, poor stock selection has contributed to lacklustre returns according to our analysis. Since launch in April 2007 the fund has grown by 22.5 per cent compared with 31.1 per cent for the average fund in the IMA UK equity income sector,” Hargreaves said.

“Looking back over Mott’s entire track record as a manager dating back to 1986, he has returned 846 per cent, compared with 457 per cent from the IMA UK equity income sector and 403 per cent from the FTSE All-Share. In other words he has returned 1.88 times as much as the FTSE All-Share,” the firm added.

Morningstar also said in a statement the fund's rating remains under review as a result of the change. The fund previously held a Morningstar analyst rating of silver, but moved to under review in November 2013 when it was announced that Williams had been appointed as co-manager.

On Mott’s retirement, Morningstar said on its website: “We believe this represents a material change to the management structure of the fund, so the fund's rating remains under review.”