Platinum rules out Smolinski’s return to fund management
Platinum Asset Management chief executive Jeff Peters has said it is unlikely that former co-chief investment officer Clay Smolinski will return to running the firm’s flagship International Fund.
It was announced in February that Smolinski would be taking a six-month sabbatical from the business where he had been its co-chief investment officer and portfolio manager of the International Fund with Andrew Clifford.
This was a surprising move for the firm given he has worked at the firm for almost two decades.
While Clifford will take up a role on Platinum’s new investment oversight committee, Smolinski will take a leave of absence then discuss with management after six months as to whether there is a role for him.
Commenting on the move on a shareholder webinar, Peters discussed the next steps for Smolinski.
“Clay came to me at the end of last year and said he needed to take a break so he’s taking a six-month sabbatical from Platinum, and at the end of those six months, we will re-engage with him and we will see if there’s a role for him to come back to.
“I don’t think it will be running the International Fund. You can’t step away from a portfolio for that long and then come back and pick up again, but there might be a role in research and we’d be delighted to have him back.”
One of the issues flagged by Morningstar following the move was that Smolinski and Clifford had a big public presence and were well-known by investors, meaning their exit may contribute to outflows. Platinum said it had met with research houses to discuss the changes and had “productive” discussions with them regarding the ratings.
While the fund could have been subsequently run by Clifford as lead portfolio manager, Peters said Clifford had indicated that he too was looking to reduce his workload, having worked at Platinum for 31 years. This led the firm to begin a global search for a new manager which saw them consider 50 candidates before settling on Ted Alexander from BML Funds.
Peters said: “We met and talked at length, but he has reached a point in his career where he is looking at a shorter time frame, and I didn’t want to make a change in the fund twice. We also looked at internal options but they didn’t make sense, so it became clear we would need to look externally.
“Ted has had a great career, 17 years in the business, has run global long/short manager, has a history of outperformance, but what really was important was the fit. We didn’t want to change who we are and how the fund is managed. I’m sure there will be some enhancements, but the investment philosophy won’t. Ted has a long history of being benchmark-agnostic, looking for contrarian ideas, making sure the portfolio looks different from the index and operating with conviction.”
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