Update on the transition of investment management responsibilities

Thursday, 26 March 2026

On Thursday 13 November 2025 First Sentier Group (the Group), the global asset management organisation, announced a strategic transition of Stewart Investors' investment management responsibilities to its affiliate investment team, FSSA Investment Managers (FSSA), effective Friday, 14 November close of business EST.

Since the unexpected departure of three senior Stewart Investors’ portfolio managers in August 2025, we have worked closely with our affiliate investment teams to assess the longer-term impact of these exits.

Transition of investment management responsibilities to FSSA

In November 2025, we made the decision to transition investment management responsibilities for the vast majority of Stewart Investors’ funds to the FSSA business. Since then FSSA have assumed investment management responsibilities for, and continue to run, the following funds.

Many will recall Stewart Investors and FSSA Investment Managers share a rich heritage and operated collectively under the First State Stewart brand until 2015. This shared history and investment philosophy, combined with numerous overlapping strategies, positions FSSA as the natural choice to assume responsibility for these capabilities.

With an average investment experience of over 18 years and a geographical footprint in Hong Kong, Singapore and London, we are confident that FSSA’s investment capability, quality and breadth is best placed to deliver on our clients’ expectations. Given the history, and therefore the natural investment synergies, we believe that transitioning of investment responsibilities from Stewart Investors to FSSA strengthens our offering and will not affect the team in delivering on expectations.    

Closure of Stewart Investors’ global equities capability

Since November 2025 we have also continued to review a small number of Stewart Investors’ strategies including their global equity funds.  

Following this review and after careful consideration, we have made the strategic decision to close the global equities capability offered by Stewart Investors and a number of small funds which we believe have limited distribution potential. This has resulted in the following actions: 

• We are proposing to transition the Stewart Investors Worldwide All Cap OEIC Fund to First Sentier Group’s active, global quantitative investment manager RQI Investors. This is subject to a shareholder vote on 29 April 2026.
  Subject to shareholder approval, we believe this transition will allow us to leverage RQI Investors’ experience and long track record in global equities while supporting our clients in meeting their investment objectives.  Find out more.
  
  
• We will close a number of Stewart Investors funds, as in our view, they are no longer commercially viable over the long term. We believe that terminating these funds and returning proceeds to shareholders is in their best interests. 

We have made the decision to close the following funds: 

We intend to run these funds in line with their stated investment objectives until their termination dates.  After the termination dates we will distribute redemption proceeds to investors.

We remain committed to supporting our clients throughout this period.  Any questions can be directed to [email protected]