Update: Henderson European Focus Trust (HEFT ) fund manager John Bennett, who has announced his retirement, leaves ‘big boots to fill’ for Tom O’Hara and ‘raises questions about consolidation’, according to broker Numis. 

Bennett will step down from the £351m investment trust he has run for 13 years, as well as several open-ended European funds, to focus on his role as chairman of Scottish football club Rangers.

Co-manager Tom O’Hara, who has 17 years’ financial industry experience, will remain in place and there will be no change in the trust’s investment process, chair Vicky Hastings said on Thursday.

O’Hara has been co-fund manager for three years but Numis commented on Friday that it ‘will be interesting to see how he puts his stamp on the portfolio’. 

The broker also suggested the retirement will ‘inevitably raise questions about consolidation’ given Janus Henderson also have the £292m Henderson Eurotrust (HNE ) trading on a 14% discount.

‘John works with and has led a very strong investment team with an excellent investment process. We are confident that this will continue for HEFT. We have worked closely with Tom as co-fund manager for three years, and have John in place for a final year, so we are confident about the succession and continued support for the company,’ said Hastings. 

Shares in HEFT, which stand on a 9% discount to net asset value, but have generated an index-beating 159.5% total return over 10 years, eased 0.6% to 164p when the news broke on Thursday.

Numis highlighted Bennet had an ‘impressive long-term track record’ delivering NAV returns of 10.7% per year compared to the FTSE World Europe ex UK index’s 8% since December 2010.

The broker said said Bennett has ‘a straight talking manager who reflects these views in his stock-picking approach’. This manner was also seen his factsheets which they said made ‘interesting reading’.

Succession plans

Janus Henderson said it has a ‘robust succession’ plan in place, which will see Robert Schramm-Fuchs remain as lead manager on the group’s pan-European large-cap long/short funds. He will also step in to co-lead the open-ended European Focus fund alongside Marc Schartz.

Schramm-Fuchs, who is Citywire + rated, was handed an expanded brief at the start of 2023, which was done under the auspice of Janus Henderson CEO Ali Dibadj’s long-term cost-cutting plans for the asset manager. This saw some members of the European equity team depart.

Meanwhile, O’Hara and Tom Lemaigre, who has worked alongside Bennett for the past five years, will take over management of the long-only funds they currently work on with Bennett. According to the Citywire database, this trio currently runs the Janus Henderson European Select Opportunities and Janus Henderson Continental European fund.

Bennett originally joined Gartmore, which became Henderson and latterly Janus Henderson, in 2010. He had previously worked at GAM for 17 years covering the Swiss group’s flagship long-only and long/short equity funds.

During his tenure, Bennett has remained outspoken regarding trends in European equities. He rallied against the idea of ‘cancelled stocks’ in the sector – namely oil – and also championed the opportunities heightened inflation would create in a post-Covid world.

In April of this year, Bennett was named chairman of Rangers Football Club, having spent three years as vice chair. The lifelong fan had invested in the club previously and sat on its board since 2015.