Veteran Stewart Investors manager calls time on 30 year career

Stewart Investors has announced the decision of its veteran Asia Pacific fund manager Angus Tulloch to retire.

The Edinburgh-based firm said Tulloch will step down on 30 September but will remain involved with the business as a non-executive director of a new global small cap investment trust it plans to launch later this year.

The group confirmed in a note to clients that Tulloch, 68, would call time on a career that started when he joined Stewart Ivory in 1988 to establish an Asia Pacific (ex Japan) desk, which ultimately became Stewart Investors.

He went on to set up the firm’s global emerging markets arm in 1992 and then launch the Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies fund.

In 2000 Stewart Ivory was bought by Australian fund manager Colonial, that itself was acquired by Commonwealth Australia bank in the same year, and renamed First State Investments.

Two years ago the business split in two boutiques, Stewart Investors in Edinburgh, where Tulloch worked, and FSS Asia in Hong Kong.

The past decade has seen Tulloch’s Stewart Asia Pacific fund return 277 per cent, beating the IA Asia ex-Japan fund sector average of 139 per cent.

The note to clients also reassures investors over a succession plan, which Stewart Investors said has been developed “over a number of years”.

Hargreaves Lansdown head of research Mark Dampier said Tulloch leaves his investors in “very capable hands” having handed over lead management responsibility for his global emerging markets and Asia Pacific funds in the first half of 2016.

A committed Scottish nationalist, Tulloch backed the vote for Scotland’s independence in 2014, expressing his disappointment after the result.

Managing partner Stuart Paul, said: “Everyone at Stewart Investors will be very sorry that Angus has decided to retire. We will all miss his boundless energy and enthusiasm for the world of investment.”