Currently on gardening leave, Liddle is manager of the £9m Miton Cautious Income and £20m Global Growth funds which, from 1 March, will be taken over by Gervais Williams and Nick Greenwood respectively. He used to run the firm’s Global Income fund which was closed in the summer last year with just over £2m in assets.
The official line from MAM Funds, through Gervais Williams, the company’s managing director, is: “After an internal review we concluded that the two funds would be best managed, going forward, by merging them into existing funds in our range. The CF Miton Cautious Income Fund will merge into the Acuim UK Multi Cap Income Fund, while the CF Miton Global Growth Portfolio will be merged into the CF Miton Select Assets Fund. Investors in those funds are expected to be given the choice of a rollover into these funds or a cash exit.”
These changes are subject to shareholder approval and the underlying investors of the funds will receive appropriate communications from Capita, the ACD, in due course.
Although its long-term (ten-year) track record is good, the returns from the Global Growth fund have struggled over more recent timescales, down by 10.5% over the past year and under-performing compared to the sector over the past three years (23.5% compared to 38.5%) and five years (-10% compared to 5.5%).
His Cautious Income portfolio has fared better over shorter time periods, up by 1.2% compared to 0.8% as the sector average over the past year, with 31.4% compared to 29.2% respectively over the past three years.
Longer-term returns have been -12.7% compared to 7.6% over five and 22.3% compared to 43.4% over ten years.
Liddle joined MAM Funds in January 2003 – or Miton Asset Management as it was called at the time – having been at Legg Mason Investors since 1998.
One of the businesses that he has already set up is called Zapmenow which markets Zap!, a student app that is an advertising platform through which bars, clubs and restaurants can offer promotions direct to the smartphones of students.
