AXA Framlington Health manager change

6 May 2021 - AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has announced Dani Saurymper will be leaving its Healthcare team in June and that Peter Hughes and Linden Thomson will become co-managers of the AXA Framlington Health fund.

Peter Hughes joined AXA Investment Managers in 2015 and specialises in biotech and healthcare equities. He has a strong background in medical research, having completed a PHD in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology from University College London, working on a drug development project in a multidisciplinary research group collaborating with GSK. He is also an ambassador for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Linden Thomson joined AXA Investment Managers in 2011, specialising in biotechnology as lead manager of the AXA Framlington Biotech fund and is co-head of Global Equities Framlington. She started her career in 2003 at Goldman Sachs on the sell side in the healthcare research team, with specific focus on the biotechnology sector. Linden holds a bachelor’s degree in Medical Microbiology from Edinburgh University.

The managers will continue to manage the strategy with the same ESG considerations and investment approach. AXA IM also plans to add an additional experienced healthcare resource to the team in due course.

Mark Hargraves, Global Head of Framlington Equities, commented: “We would like to thank Dani for his important contribution to AXA IM over the past six years, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. We have a well-established and highly experienced healthcare team who will continue to ensure we retain a strong platform to maintain the ongoing success and management of our healthcare strategies.” 

Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, added: “AXA Framlington Health had a generic ‘hold’ rating from Chelsea and will remain so pending a meeting with the new managers. We like the concentrated approach, but performance had been underwhelming.

“Linden’s AXA Framlington Biotechnology fund is currently a generic buy rating, however, and it will be interesting to see if her excellent stock picking skills outside of the subsector can be replicated in this fund in future.”