Pacific Assets’ David Gait resigns after 28 years with Stewart Investors 

Long-serving fund manager David Gait has resigned after nearly 30 years with Stewart Investors, the Edinburgh-based sustainable investment arm of Australia’s First Sentier Investors. 

Gait joined the team as a graduate in 1997 and progressed to lead manager of its Asia Pacific Leaders and Asia Pacific All Cap Strategies. 

This includes Stewart Investors’ £420m Pacific Assets Trust (PAC ), which he has managed for fifteen years, and its £5.7bn Asia Pacific Leaders fund, co-managed since 2016. He was also a member of the Stewart Investors board.

The PAC investment trust, which made the announcement, said Jack Nelson had been appointed as its new co-portfolio manager, to support Douglas Ledingham who will retain his position as lead. 

Nelson joined Stewart Investors in 2011 and has been a senior investor on various Global Emerging Markets strategies, including lead and co-portfolio manager roles across the All Cap and Leaders funds.

The trust, which invests in the Asia Pacific region and Indian Subcontinent, with 35% in India as of July, has suffered from underperformance in recent years. 

According to data from Deutsche Numis, PAC is down on the MSCI AC Asia Pacific-ex Japan index over one and three years, as well as year to date.

On the longer three-year view, shareholders in 1.4%-yielding Pacific Assets, which trades on a 10% discount, are up 7.1% versus 19.3% for the benchmark.