Ian Hardacre is joining the Jackman family empire as an investment manager.Donald Weber/The Globe and Mail
Veteran mutual fund manager Ian Hardacre, who was unceremoniously dumped by Invesco Canada in January after a rare bad stretch of investment results, is joining the Jackman family empire as an investment manager.
Mr. Hardacre, 50, starts Monday at Empire Life Investments, a subsidiary of The Empire Life Financial Insurance Co., which in turn is owned by the Jackman family's publicly traded E-L Financial Corp. Ltd. He joins a small investment team led by chief investment officer Gaelen Morphet that manages $14.5-billion in assets.
"The most important thing was joining an organization where the fit with the people was just right, and where the focus on investing is number one, not marketing" Mr. Hardacre said. "They are experienced investors that won't react to short-term market movements."
Though he won't talk about his former employer, sources in the investment industry say Mr. Hardacre suffered the same fate in the 18 months before his departure as many value-style managers who, like him, were overweight in depressed oil and gas and gold stocks that didn't rebound as expected.
Mr. Hardacre, who oversaw the flagship $953-million Trimark Canadian Fund, had outperformed the market during the last full cycle.
Ironically, some of the big names in Trimark fund under his watch have done well since his departure, notably retailer Rona, which was taken out by Lowe's at a huge premium, as well as Crew Energy Inc., WESCO International, Inc. and Kinross Gold, which saw their stocks snap back as commodity prices rose.
It's difficult to tell how much the fund benefited from those rebounds because its makeup radically changed over the last quarter. While the company made some big moves in its stock holdings, however, it remained a fourth-quartile performer.
The fund, now under the watch of Trimark vice-president Alan Mannik, has amped up its exposure to financial stocks (which represented 43 per cent of holdings on March 31, compared to 18.8 at the end of 2015) and information technology (rising to 6.99 per cent from 3.64), while cutting its holdings in industrials (14.3 per cent down from 22.46), consumer discretionary (8.33 per cent down from 19.33) and materials (just 1.16 per cent down from 14). Energy holdings have sagged to 17.6 per cent of its holdings, from 19 per cent on Dec. 31.
The fund's top 10 holdings list now features new positions in Power Corp. of Canada and Berkshire Hathaway stocks and a much bigger stake in Brookfield Asset Management (A) – now its top holding – compared to three months earlier. The fund has also picked up sizable stakes in Oracle Corp. and auto parts retailer CarMax Inc.
Oil patch players Crew Energy and Enerflex Ltd. and heavy equipment supplier Toromont Industries Ltd. have dropped from the top 10 holdings list.
Sean Silcoff