ES River & Mercantile UK Equity Income Class B - Income (GBP)

Anna Pugh graduated from the University of Bath with a First-Class Honours degree in Economics in 2012. Prior to joining R&M, Anna worked as a product specialist at Neptune Investment Management undertaking analysis on their equity fund range. Anna joined River and Mercantile in 2018 as an Equity Analyst to work closely on the UK portfolios. In 2021, she was promoted to alternate Portfolio Manager on the UK Income fund. Anna is a CFA charter holder.

Matt has over 20 years' experience of managing UK equities, with a deep specialist knowledge of equity income strategies. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Coopers and Lybrand, Matt started his investment career in 2001 as an assistant fund manager at AIB Govett Fund Management. In 2001, he joined Cazenove Fund Management to launch a new fund, the Equity Income Trust for Charities and to develop his investment approach for equity income. In 2005 he launched the Cazenove UK Equity Income Fund which became one of the best performing funds in the income sector, eventually growing to c1bn in assets under management and which was twice shortlisted for the IA best UK equity income fund of the year. For over a decade Matt was a key member of the highly successful and award winning Pan European Equities team at Cazenove Capital, combining his portfolio management responsibilities with his analytical work on a range of UK sectors including Banking, Utilities, Chemicals, Mining and the Building & Construction sectors. In 2013, Matt moved, along with the rest of the business cycle team, to Schroders following the take-over of Cazenove by the latter. He continued to focus on his key income fund responsibilities and was later appointed as the Head of the Schroders Pan European Business Cycle Team, managing a team of senior Portfolio Managers responsible for client assets of over £5bn in long and long/short strategies. After nearly two decades managing income funds using a business cycle approach. Matt left Schroders in February 2020.