By ROBERT HARLEY 02/06/2008
John Stavis is to take a 6 month sabbatical effective from the 1st July so we have suspended our rating on his funds. His break coincides with a period of poor performance for both Fidelity Income Plus and Fidelity Growth & Income over the last two years.
Michael Clark is taking over Income Plus. He has been at Fidelity for five years and has more than 20 years investment experience. He has more of a focus on total return than John Stavis, so investors in Income Plus should expect to see the yield on the fund fall back and the concentration of the portfolio increase. Fidelity Growth & Income Fund will be run by Matt Siddle who has fulfilled a number of research roles at Fidelity over his 9 years at the firm. Siddle is a growth orientated manager although he is also keen on paying the lowest possible price for companies with sustainable growth over the long term.
We will be meeting the new managers of these funds once they have assumed their responsibilities. However, investors should note that both managers currently have limited identifiable track records so they should consider switching their holdings to alternative rated funds within the respective peer groups.