Magellan confirms future infrastructure ETF management
Magellan has confirmed the new leadership of its active infrastructure ETF once head of investment, Gerald Stack, exits in July.
It was announced in late January that Stack would be departing in July after almost 20 years with the business.
He is currently the head of investments and has led the firm’s global listed infrastructure team, including its $1.5 billion Magellan Infrastructure Fund.
He also previously worked as the deputy chief investment officer under former chief executive, David George, from October 2022 to August 2023.
In an ASX announcement, Magellan said that the Magellan Infrastructure Fund (Currency Hedged) Active ETF will now be run jointly by Ben McVicar, Ofer Karliner and David Costello.
The fund was launched in July 2016 and has $583 million in assets under management.
McVicar and Karliner are already managers on the fund alongside Stack, while Costello has worked at Magellan for the past 10 years and has been a portfolio manager since 2019.
Both McVicar and Karliner have been working as portfolio managers since 2017, and McVicar is also the sector head for infrastructure and industrials.
It has been separately announced that McVicar will be taking over the leadership of the infrastructure investment team upon Stack’s departure, although Magellan is yet to confirm who will take over the broader head of investment title.
Over one year, the Magellan Infrastructure Fund (Currency Hedged) Active ETF has returned 11 per cent versus returns of 22.5 per cent by the S&P Global Infrastructure Index over the same period.
Funds under management (FUM) in the ETF have fallen from $656 million in February 2024 to $583 million a year later, while overall infrastructure equity FUM sits at $16.8 billion.
Chief executive Sophia Rahmani said: “Gerald has done the best he can to put together a textbook succession plan, and the reaction we’ve seen from clients and institutional consultants has supported that. We have always had five infrastructure managers, so our clients know them. To our clients, Gerald’s departure wasn’t a huge shock to them, and they are happy to see Ben elevated to lead that team.
“No client has indicated an immediate loss of assets under management, but we do recognise the risk of listed infrastructure as an asset class. I would say the client and consultant reaction we saw was what we expected in terms of it being a long-term transition.”
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Laura Dew
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