R&M suffers outflows following Rodrigs' exit

CEO blames "equity weakness"

River and Mercantile Group blamed equity "weakness" for dragging performance over the three months to 31 March 2018, a period chief executive Mike Faulkner called the "apprehension phase" of a market cycle.

Notable redemptions included £165m flowing out of the UK Smaller Companies and £158m from its UK Dynamic funds following former manager Philip Rodrigs' high-profile exit from the group earlier this year. Outflows also included £300m of maturing structured equity investments. Faulkner said: "As expected, our AUM has been negatively affected by the investment return in our equities business, but the effect was more muted in fiduciary management due to our defensive positioning." The group posted three and nine-month results simultaneously, with fee-earning total assets under manageme...