SJP cuts GAM and THS from running mandates

St. James’s Place has cut ties with THS Partners and GAM’s manager Andrew Green, which will see billions in client money moved out of these strategies in the coming months, Wealth Manager understands.

Green ran a £1.7 billion mandate, managing the £330 million Recovery unit trust , as well as the GAM Managed and GAM Managed Distribution life funds. 

THS Partners – founded by Nils Taube, John Hodson and Cato Stonex – is also seeing its ties with the wealth manager severed.

THSP, which has been the longest-standing fund manager for SJP, ran over £5 billion for the firm until last year, when the wealth manager launched a new Global Equity fund .

The fund consists of a core portfolio, with 60% run by BlackRock using an equally-weighted indexing approach, and 40% in four satellite portfolios of 10% each, run by four active managers, including THSP. 

The move meant THSP saw the amount it ran reduced to £1 billion. One reason for the global equity fund was to diversify assets away from THSP, to allow for greater capacity for future asset growth and to eliminate single manager risk.

However, the latest development means THSP will no longer run this 10% of the fund, nor the £800 million International unit trust for SJP.

One source close to the situation said: ‘They have a valuable business. Lloyds owns 60%, which it wants to sell. So this might be a move to de-risk, moving away from active style towards more passive.’

‘But charges are around 2% a year – I’m worried it’s difficult to deliver returns  - and impossible if it’s more like an index tracker.’

Over three years, Green has delivered 14.78% to the end of October, versus the benchmark’s 24.65% over this time period.