Yahoo Finance Watchdog sniffs out fees feud between Invesco and trust board
The City watchdog has waded into a row between UK fund manager Invesco Perpetual and the chairman one of its investment trusts.
The Financial Conduct Authority has asked the £150 million trust, Enhanced Income, for more information about the spat, which focuses on who manages the assets of the trust.
The FCA, which has pushed fund manager groups to lower fees, declined to comment.
Invesco, based in Henley-on-Thames, wants to oust the trust’s chairman, Donald Adamson, at a investor vote next month.
Adamson and the board accuse Invesco of crushing retail investors’ interests by trying to get rid of him and board colleague, Richard Williams.
Invesco fund managers Paul Read and Paul Causer, who have run the trust since 2001, made their first public statement on the issue today, accusing the board of being “overly aggressive” in fee negotiations.
They resigned and a £12 million fall in the trust’s value prompted them to seek Adamson’s removal, they said.
The trust said the move was a “cynical attempt to use voting power against retail investors”.
Fund manager GAM, which originally backed Invesco's proposal, has since withdrawn its support for the shareholder vote.
