A rating agency has pulled two of the portfolio manager's funds of a listing in reaction to his departure.

River and Mercantile Asset Management has announced that portfolio manager Philip Rodrigs has left the business following an investigation into a professional conduct issue. This news prompted fund ratings agency FundCalibre to take two of the funds that Rodrigs had run off a listing.

Rodrigs left on 7 February. He was previously lead manager of the River and Mercantile (‘R&M’) UK Equity Smaller Companies Fund, the R&M UK Dynamic Equity Fund, and the R&M UK Micro Cap Investment Company Limited fund. 

RAMAM said the conduct issue was unrelated to his portfolio manager responsibilities and has not impacted the pricing or NAV of any RAMAM fund and that no client or investor has been negatively affected in connection with this matter.

FundCalibre said it has immediately taken the R&M UK Equity Smaller Companies fund and the R&M UK Dynamic Equity fund from its "elite rating" listing.

“River & Mercantile have reacted quickly and decisively and we are reassured that, whatever has happened, it has not impacted investors in either of these funds,” said Clive Hale, director at FundCalibre. “While we remain very supportive of R&M and the rest of the very strong investment team, the elite rating is awarded based on the performance of the lead fund manager. This means that both funds must unfortunately lose their ratings.”

Changes
RAMAM has appointed Dan Hanbury as manager of the R&M UK Equity Smaller Companies Fund. The multi-cap R&M UK Dynamic Equity Fund will be managed by William Lough, in addition to his continuing responsibilities as alternate to Hugh Sergeant on RAMAM’s high alpha and recovery strategies. 

The firm has also appointed George Ensor as manager of the R&M UK Micro Cap Investment Company Limited fund.

Independent financial advisor Chelsea Financial Services has said it will keep the R&M UK Equity Smaller Companies fund on its selection.

“This news is obviously a shock but the good news is that investors have not been negatively impacted. Dan Hanbury, who is alternate manager of the fund and ran it before Philip joined the company, is a very good manager, and has the support of a very strong team who all input into the PVT investment process. For this reason, we are happy to keep the fund on the Chelsea Selection for the time being, pending a meeting with Dan to reassure ourselves about its future,” Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, said.