The overseer of the largest equity fund in the United Kingdom, Neil Woodford, had announced his departure from Invesco Perpetual after 25 years of service to manage his very own firm. To replace him, Mark Barnett was appointed head of UK equities and would run Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund as well as the Invesco Perpetual Income Fund.
The two funds have a combined asset base of GBP24.6 billion or USD39 billion. Barnett would come in after a six month transition period after managing nearly GBP1.5 billion in assets for orther funds. The transition plan was announced by Invesco through a statement today.
Woodford, who manages a total of GBP 33 billion overall, became one of the most renowned UK mutual fund managers when he picked stocks that had fit his overall view of the economy. He is also most well known for avoiding bank shares back in 2008, prior to the market crash.
For his part, Woodford declined to make any comment on his new endeavor, through a statement but he did add that details would soon be provided after his departure from Invesco on April 29.
As a result of the announcement, Invesco shares fell by nearly 7.4% to USD32.08 per share in the NYSE, the largest decline since September 2011. The sell off had valued the investment manager at USD14.4 billion.
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