Deputy takes Scottish Oriental reins as Vinay Agarwal departs

Deputy fund manager Sree Agarwal steps up to lead manager of the Citywire award-winning trust with immediate effect after Vinay Agarwal departs FSSA Investors.

Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies (SST ) trust fund manager Vinay Agarwal has left FSSA Investors with immediate effect, handing a promotion to his deputy Sree Agarwal (no relation).

In a stock exchange notice, the £405m trust said Vinay Agarwal had left fund manager FSSA Investors by mutual agreement after a 13-year stint and that Sree Agarwal would take over with the support of Martin Lau.

The A-rated Vinay Agarwal is based in Singapore. He had worked at the fund manager since July 2011, according to his LinkedIn, and took over management of the trust in 2016. SST won Best Asia Pacific Trust at the Citywire Investment Trust Awards 2024 earlier this month.

Over the past five years to 27 November, during which Sree Agarwal (pictured) has been deputy manager, the trust has delivered underlying total returns of 61% in sterling terms versus 66% for its MSCI AC Asia (ex Japan) Small Cap index benchmark and 17% for the broader MSCI AC Asia (ex Japan) index, according to Deutsche Numis. The shareholder total return has been 53% over the same time. 

Following the most recent annual results, Sree Agarwal told Citywire he had been taking profits from the portfolio’s India holdings and recycling cash into cheap Chinese companies.

Shares in the fund softened 0.8% to £14.23 in response to the news of Agarwal’s departure, putting them on an 18% discount.

Recent measures to narrow the discount include a proposed five-for-one share split, which shareholders will vote on at the annual general meeting on 29 January, as well as the appointment of Investec as broker to improve liquidity.