BlackRock Continental European & BlackRock European Absolute Alpha removed from the Chelsea Selection

21 June 2017 – Following the news that Vincent Devlin is relinquishing his fund management responsibilities, Chelsea has decided to remove both BlackRock Continental European & BlackRock European Absolute Alpha from the Chelsea Selection.

Vincent had run the funds since 2008 and 2009 respectively. Stefan Gries and Giles Rothbarth will be appointed as portfolio managers on the BlackRock Continental European fund. Stefan has 12 years’ experience and is co-portfolio manager on other funds. Giles Rothbarth is a research analyst with 7 years’ experience and has been a back-up portfolio manager for the European Dynamic fund for the last 2 years.

Stefan Gries will continue to co-manage the BlackRock European Absolute Alpha fund and will be joined by David Tovey, who has 19 years’ experience and is portfolio manager of some of BlackRock's offshore European funds.

Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea, said: “We haven't met the co-managers of these funds and, while the BlackRock European equity team is very strong, we do not feel we can keep the funds on the Chelsea Selection. We will of course meet the new managers in future and may or may not reinstate the funds at that time.”