Standard & Poor’s Fund Services today announced that its three-star rating on AMP Capital Investment’s (AMPCI’s) Responsible Investment Leaders (RIL) Share Fund is unchanged following the announcement that Mary McLaughlin, portfolio manager for the AMPCI RIL Share Fund, left the group on June 19, 2012.

Ms McLaughlin’s departure was part of a restructuring of AMPCI’s equities portfolio management within the multi-manager team. She was appointed co-portfolio manager of the fund in November 2011, and had taken over sole portfolio management responsibility in April 2012, when former portfolio manager Van Athukorala departed as part of an earlier restructure.
 
The new structure for equities portfolio management will see Tanya Debakhapouve, head of listed multi-manager, also appointed as lead portfolio manager for all AMPCI equities funds including the AMPCI RIL Share Fund. In this new role, Ms. Debakhapouve will be ultimately responsible for investment strategy and portfolio construction, and will provide input into manager-selection decisions. Ms. Debakhapouve will also be relocating from Singapore to Sydney where the rest of the listed multi-manager team is based.
 
Within each fund, Ms Debkhapouve will be supported by a co-portfolio manager who will maintain responsibility for manager selection and monitoring of the fund’s exposures. In our opinion, this co-portfolio manager role forms the bulk of work performed for each fund. The co-portfolio manager for the AMPCI RIL Share Fund is senior portfolio manager Sally Boone who will return from parental leave in mid-July. Ms Boone is a former portfolio manager of the fund and was in charge between 2007 and 2009.
 
AMPCI’s RIL Share Fund is part of our current review of the Global Equities sector. We will assess these latest changes to the fund and release our findings shortly.