The Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG) share price is down 9% today and 16% over two days after announced change to its key personal.
Magellan is a fund manager that provides investment funds for three different areas: global shares, infrastructure shares and ASX shares.
Investment team changes
Magellan made this announcement yesterday.
On the investment team side, Magellan said that after a review of its global share offerings, Alan Pullen (in September 2024) joined the portfolio manager team (with Arvid Streimann) for the Magellan Global Fund and associated portfolios. Nikki Thomas will transition from this fund and focus exclusively on the Magellan High Conviction Strategy.
Magellan sees the high conviction strategy as playing a “pivotal role” for existing and prospective clients, particularly in the high net worth channel.
Andrew Gowen joined Magellan on 28 January 2025 as associate portfolio manager of the high conviction strategy and will work alongside Nikki on this strategy. He was most recently with Lombard Odier in London as portfolio manager for the global brands equities strategies.
It expects to add further portfolio management capabilities to the global equity team “in the foreseeable future”.
Finally, Gerald Stack will step down from his role as head of investments after 18 years, but will remain until July. He has led the listed infrastructure team since 2008. Gerald Stack has been Magellan’s head of investments for more than a decade. It was mentioned he will “take some time off before pursuing his next opportunity”.
Executive changes
The fund manager also told the market about a number of senior executive appointments.
Emma Pringle joined on 13 January as head of IR and sustainability and Jen Driscoll joined on 28 January as chief operating officer.
Simon Barrett joined on 28 January as head of UK and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) distribution, based in the UK, and Sam Mosse will join in April as the chief risk officer.
The company is “well advanced” in its search for a permanent chief financial offer.
Final thoughts on the Magellan share price
There were a lot of changes announced, particularly on the investment side. The loss of Gerald Stack may be weighing on investor minds.
How much will this affect the future performance? We’ll have to see, its performance could actually improve.
It looks a lot cheaper, but I’m not sure if it will rise back to its former level in the short-term with this uncertainty. The funds need to deliver good investment performance to win more funds under management (FUM) and motivate investors to leave their money with Magellan.
There are other ASX dividend shares I’d rather buy which don’t face as many challenges (such as cheap ETFs).
