Fixed income manager Mike Riddell has left Allianz Global Investors and the flagship Allianz Strategic Bond fund to join Fidelity International in August.
He will become the lead portfolio manager of Fidelity’s total return bond strategies, as well as the £370.6m Fidelity Strategic Bond fund, by 2 January 2025 at the latest. The fund’s current manager, Tim Foster, will assume co-portfolio manager responsibilities.
Since its peak in assets under management in May 2021, when it reached £1bn, the Fidelity Strategic Bond fund has shrunk to the current size, lagging the IA Sterling Strategic Bond sector and returning 0% in the past five years, as the chart below shows.
Performance of fund against sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Riddell’s experience in fixed income markets stretches back 22 years. He joined AllianzGI in 2015 as a senior portfolio manager and previously worked at M&G Investments for 12 years, where he managed index-linked and government bond funds.
Steve Ellis, global chief investment officer, fixed income at Fidelity, said Riddell has a strong long-term track record and “a philosophy centred on providing low correlation to equity in total return and unconstrained fixed income strategies”.
“We are confident that his top-down macro insights will enhance and complement our extensive bottom-up credit and quantitative research resources,” he added.
Riddell has managed the Allianz Strategic Bond fund since 2015. It had a phenomenal year in 2020, returning 31% versus 6.6% for the average fund in the IA Sterling Strategic Bond Sector. However, it has lagged the peer group average since then.
Performance of funds versus sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Riddell said: “I am greatly looking forward to taking full advantage of Fidelity’s strength and depth to add further rigor to the investment process, portfolio construction and especially risk management and oversight, which should all help to benefit client outcomes.”