Dent to quit British Assets Trust

THE manager of F&C's Edinburgh-based British Assets Trust is to stand down in September, the firm has announced.

Julie Dent, at the helm of the 488 million global growth investment trust for more than a decade, will hand over to Phil Doel when she retires on 30 September. Doel currently runs the F&C UK Equity Income fund.

Dent joined F&C in 1996 and since 1999 has also managed the 33.2m multi-manager trust, which will be taken over by Peter Hewitt. The F&C board said it supported the change of managers on the British Assets Trust, which has underperformed its FTSE World benchmark over the past five years.