McQuaker: how I plan to turn performance around

Henderson's head multi-manager Bill McQuaker is seeking to drive performance across his funds by taking a core defensive approach with optionality to benefit from potential upside. 

McQuaker is also unafraid to take contrarian bets when he believes sentiment is overblown.

‘Another layer of management in all of this is a willingness and a desire to manage our exposure to risk assets according to price and market behaviour. What I mean is if it gets nasty and the mood turns black then our mind set is to look to find ways of putting risk into portfolios as that period of uncertainty and worry unfolds. Conversely when the mood lightens and prices rise again we do the opposite and take risk off,’ he said.

McQuaker (pictured) has seen performance suffer in recent times while his fund range has undergone various rationalisations following Henderson’s acquisitions of New Star and Gartmore.

The Henderson Multi-Manager Active fund, which was merged with the Henderson Multi-Manager Tactical fund last year, posted a 17.2% fall over the 12 months to the end of December while the LCI UK & International Equity index was down 4.8%, according to Lipper.

Over the past three years, the fund is up 21%, while the index rose 35.9%. Over the past 12 months the Henderson Multi-Manager Income & Growth fund has fared slightly better, with a 0.8% rise.

However, looking ahead he says he is happy with the positioning of his portfolios and is hoping to turn around performance across the range.

‘We have had three years of pretty good growth up until the end of last year. Net sales have been strong, but not across the range,’ he said. ‘The lower risk funds are where our reputation and performance is strongest and that is where inflows have been strongest. It is also where the market has been. People by and large have not wanted to have exposure to higher risk funds over the past few years.

‘We have got some work to do in terms of improving the performance of our higher-risk funds. There was more of a reorganisation of those portfolios last year than we would have liked in an ideal world, but we got to the end of that at the tail-end of last year. The portfolios are as we want them to be and the challenge is to deliver good performance in 2012.’

This is a challenge he feels confident facing. ‘I joined in 2005 and the team managed a higher risk fund up until 2010 when it was merged into the old New Star Active fund,’ he said. ‘But the original Henderson fund performed well between 2005 and 2010, it was just into the top quartile so we have historically demonstrated some ability. We have got to do it again.’