Schroders AAA-rated income duo Purves and Lance to join RWC

(Update) Schroder Income AAA-rated duo Ian Lance (above) and Nick Purves are set to leave the group to join London based boutique RWC Partners.

The duo's Schroder Income fund has been a key factor in the success of the firm's retail proposition over the last three years and has returned 58.43% against the FTSE 350 High return of 21.94% over five years.

The pair will be replaced by Citywire A-rated Nick Kirrage and Kevin Murphy who have run the Schroder Recovery Fund since 2006, with the new duo also taking over the income proportion of the Schroder Income Maximiser fund.

Kirrage, who joined Schroders in 2001, has co managed Schroder Recovery Fund alongside Murphy since 2006 and both are members of Schroder's Specialist Value team which sits in the UK equities team headed up by Richard Buxton.

Ian Lance has been rated 100% of the 7 months he has been eligible for a Citywire rating with 5 AAs and 2 AAAs while Purves has been eligible for a rating for 93 months and has been rated for 58 of them, with 29 AAAs, 8 AAs and 21 As.

Citywire A-rated Nick Kirrage and Kevin Murphy have 100% Citywire rating coverage for the 10 months they have been eligible, with 4 AAs and 6 As each.

The pair's Recovery Fund has returned 38.18% over one year to 14 May compared to 27.48% on the FTSE All Share. Over three years the fund has returned 5.47% compared to -9.20 for the FTSE All Share.

Robin Stoakley, UK managing director told Citywire: 'Kevin and Nick will also work on the equity portion of income maximiser. It was a no brainer for us as they have worked with Ian and Nick for seven years and there is an 80% commonality of stocks between the Schroder Income fund and the Schroder Recovery fund.'

'We have a very strong UK Equity team and I’m delighted that Kevin and Nick are taking over responsibility of Schroder Income Fund. Kevin and Nick bring a great combination of experience and talent to this fund, and have intimate knowledge of value investing based on seven years’ experience working within the Specialist Value team. I am confident we can continue to deliver competitive UK equity income performance that our clients have come to expect.'

The hires are a coup for RWC. It is best known for the convertibles business it acquired from JP Morgan along with managers such as Miles Geldard and Ajay Gambhir, but has  been looking to establish a stronger retail presence.