Christopher Littlejohns has stepped down as manager of the Merrill Lynch UK Income fund after more than 13 years at the helm. His replacement is Nick McLeod-Clarke, who has been with Blackrock / Merrill Lynch since 2001, managing UK equity portfolios for institutional pension fund clients as well as covering the oil and gas sector as an analyst. He was previously co-head of UK Equities at Morley Fund Management, and head of Institutional Funds-UK Equities at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. McLeod-Clarke will be taking a higher conviction appoach on the fund, reducing the number of holdings to between 25 and 40.
Littlejohns remains with Blackrock Merrill Lynch and will continue to manage their Income Portfolio and Charishare funds.
Recommendation
This fund is not currently rated by Bestinvest; our recommended funds in the UK Equity Income sector include Artemis Income, JO Hambro UK Equity Income and AXA Framlington Monthly Income.