William Blair & Co. has reduced its rating of Invesco to “market perform” from “outperform” primarily because of a recent announcement that an Invesco Perpetual portfolio manager will leave the firm, according to a statement issued by William Blair.
The financial services firm believes that material outflows are likely. William Blair's assessment is that the annualized negative earnings-per-share impact to Invesco will be 7% to 10% of its previous 2014 EPS estimate.
Neil Woodford will leave Invesco Perpetual on April 29, 2014, to set up a competing firm, confirmed Invesco spokesman Bill Hensel. Mark Barnett will succeed Mr. Woodford as head of U.K. equities and will be named manager of the £14 billion ($22.6 billion) Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund and the £10.6 billion Invesco Perpetual Income Fund.
“My intention is to establish a new fund management business serving institutional and retail clients” after leaving Invesco, Mr. Woodford said in a statement.
Representatives from William Blair could not be reached at press time.
