Square Mile Investment Consulting & Research have taken the decision to remove the rating of the Henderson European Growth fund. The fund's AAA Square Mile rating was suspended in October 2014 following the news of the impending departure of Richard Pease, co-manager of the fund, as well as analyst James Milne.

The new lead manager, Simon Rowe, has many years of investment experience and has worked on the fund since 2001. Whilst Mr Rowe clearly displays passion for the strategy and does have the wider resources of the Henderson European equity team to draw upon, the fund has lost two of three critical personnel, whose interaction in the first place was a key attraction. The removal of this dynamic, in our opinion, is important, dramatically changing the basis upon which we originally awarded the fund a rating. Whilst Mr Rowe will continue to manage the fund with the same investment philosophy and approach, this will be his first time running a fund on his own. As such we would like to monitor his progress for a reasonable time period and give Mr Rowe the space to display his individual investment prowess. At this stage we do not have sufficient conviction to maintain a Square Mile rating.