Fidelity Special Situations: New Manager Announced
May 15th, 2007
Back in June last year it was announced that Anthony Bolton was stepping down from running the Fidelity Special Situations fund.
We have learned today that Sanjeev Shah will take over management of the Fidelity Special Situations fund. Anthony Bolton will continue to run it for the rest of this year and Sanjeev will take over full responsibility at that time.
So what can our investors expect from this change?
Anthony Bolton has proved himself to have incredible skill at picking the right stocks and we feel confident that he has the same talent at picking the best fund managers. Sanjeev has established a good reputation, most recently running the Fidelity European Aggressive fund and while there are similarities in the way he runs money to Anthony, he does not fall into the trap of being a clone, which in itself would have been a worry.
We believe it is the best announcement that Fidelity could have made and should serve to reassure investors.
Sanjeev is a dynamic individual, committed to Fidelity (he has worked there 11 years) and is certainly excited by the role he will take on. I feel that the environment and structure suits Sanjeev and therefore the opportunities are plentiful. While we will monitor the situation very closely and acknowledge that there are high expectations of what Sanjeev can bring to the table, we feel he is up to the challenge.
Incidentally, investors should be aware that the half of the fund which was used to form the Global Special Situations fund and was handed to Jorma Korhonen, will not in any way be run in tandem with the fund Sanjeev inherits. The approach and style will be different and therefore stock overlap (for the relevant regions) should be minimal.
Author: Philippa Gee
May 15th, 2007
Category: Fund News, Investments.
