Assirt puts Perpetual Dublin on hold

Assirt Research has placed Perpetual Investment’s international equity funds on hold, pending a formal review of the group’s new team, style, and process.

Assirt’s new owner (S&P) Standard & Poor’s said today that the move follows Perpetual’s decision to transition portfolios from Fidelity Investments to its new in-house international equities team in Dublin.

Perpetual ended an exclusive deal with Fidelity to manage its international equities on behalf of its retail clients last September.

This immediately followed Perpetual’s poaching of four portfolio managers from Bank Of Ireland Asset Management to set up its own international equities arm, which officially opened last month.

Assirt’s decision follows a similar action against the group’s regional funds by the research house in October last year.

That action, which preceded S&P’s acquisition of Assirt from St George Bank last month, was taken as a result of uncertainty over the management style of these funds.

S&P fund analyst Veronica Gullo said today that the nine affected regional funds would remain on hold, along with the international equity funds, until further notice.

Gullo said all of Perpetual’s funds with significant exposure to the international equities sector were now on hold, including all diversified funds that have a significant exposure to this asset class.

Describing the action as “prudent”, she said Assirt does not have a “reasonable level of confidence in either the new team or process to maintain our current rating on these funds”.

“We understand that the transition is almost complete and we will conduct a formal review of Perpetual’s new capabilities in global equities once this has been finalised,” she said.