Bill MillerDouglas C. Pizac/The Associated Press
U.S. fund manager Bill Miller, whose performance has struggled after gaining fame for beating the S&P 500 for 15 consecutive years to 2005, has been let go by CI Investments Inc.
Instead, Mr. Miller's CI Value Trust has now been handed over to CI's Boston-based Cambridge Advisors investment team headed by Alan Radlo, the fund company said Friday.
Mr. Miller's U.S. equity fund sold in Canada since 2004 has posted an average annual loss of 12 per cent for the five years ended March 31, compared with a 1.1-per-cent loss for the S&P 500 Composite Total Return in Canadian dollars. Since inception, that fund has suffered an annualized loss of 8.5 per cent.
It was considered a coup when CI hired Mr. Miller from Baltimore, Md.-based Legg Mason Capital Management to run a fund similar to his then-famed Legg Mason Value Trust. He was even described as a younger version U.S. investor Warren Buffett.
During the stock market meltdown in 2008, CI Value Trust lost 47 per cent, while the U.S. dollar version of the same fund was down an even more depressing 56 per cent. He had made some disastrous bets on financial names like AIG, Bear Stearns, and Countrywide Financial.
The portfolio management change was among several announced by CI. The Cambridge team is also taking over CI American Equity fund which has been run by U.S.-based Triology Global Advisors LLC. That fund has posted an average annual loss of 3.7 per cent over the 10 years ending March 31 versus a 1.6-per-cent loss for the S&P 500.
"With the changes…CI is ending its portfolio management relationships with Legg Mason Capital Management and Triology Global Advisors," CI Investments president Derek Green said in a statement.
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