BNY Mellon Global Income – removal from Wealth 50

Jonathon Curtis | Fri 27 March 2020

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We’ve removed BNY Mellon Global Income from the Wealth 50 list.

We’ve made this decision as Nick Clay, the fund’s manager, will be leaving the company later this year. The fund’s co-manager Andrew McKirby and analysts Robert Canepa-Anson and Colin Rutter have also handed in their notice.

Replacing Clay as manager of the fund will be Ilga Haubelt, who joined BNY Mellon in November 2019, and previously ran a large global equity income fund elsewhere. She’ll be joined by portfolio managers Robert Hay, Paul Flood and Jon Bell. BNY Mellon has said Clay and the rest of the current team will keep managing the fund for a few months while a hand-over is arranged.

In his time as manager, Clay has strictly adhered to the fund’s long-established approach of only investing in companies with higher yields than the global stock market average, and selling them without exception if the yield falls below the global average.

The fund has been one of the strongest performers in the IA Global Equity Income sector over several years, and we have high conviction in Clay and the current team. So we’re disappointed to hear of the departures.

Haubelt and the other portfolio managers taking over are relatively unknown to us. We have no reason to believe they’re not capable managers, but we cannot say with any confidence whether they’re high-calibre. They’ve assured us there won’t be any change to the fund’s philosophy or process.

Although we’re removing BNY Mellon Global Income from the Wealth 50, this isn’t a recommendation to take any action. Investors should make sure it still matches their investment goals and attitude to risk.

Past performance is not a guide to the future. Source: Lipper IM to 29/02/2020.

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