A financial services industry veteran has been named as the next chairman at a £644 million investment trust.
Colin Clark, who has had a 35 year career in asset and wealth management including senior roles at Standard Life Investments, is joining the board at The Merchants Trust which is managed by Allianz Global Investors.
Clark, who is currently chairman of AXA Investment Managers UK and a non-executive director of Rathbone Brothers, will also be appointed as chairman following the retirement from the board of Simon Fraser in September.
Clark has also worked with Mercury Asset Management, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and S.G.Warburg & Co. He retired from Standard Life following the merger with Aberdeen Asset Management.
The announcement came as the 130-year-old trust announced it was increasing its annual dividend for the 37th year in a row.
It said in a “challenging year overall for stock markets around the world”, Merchants’ UK equity portfolio outperformed its benchmark index, the FTSE All-Share by 0.3%, over the year to 31 January 2019. However its net asset value return was -5.2% compared with the benchmark total return of -3.8% due to the impact of gearing in a falling market.
Fraser said: “We remain in a period of heightened geopolitical and economic risk. However, whilst there has been volatility in share prices, the fundamentals of most companies in Merchants’ portfolio remain robust, with a resilient outlook for profits and dividends, albeit that the economic outlook is more uncertain than a year ago.”
