Following the announcement today that Stuart Parks, head of Invesco Perpetual's Asian Equities team, is retiring and will be leaving the business in June next year, we have decided to suspend the A rating on the Invesco Perpetual Asian fund until we have had an opportunity to meet with the new co-heads of the combined Asian & Emerging Market Equities team, William Lam and Ian Hargreaves. Mr Lam and Mr Hargreaves are both senior fund managers within the Asian Equities team and took over the co-head role earlier this month. Furthermore, Dean Newman, head of the Emerging Market Equities team, is also retiring and will be departing the group at the end of this year. 

There will be no change to the management of the Invesco Perpetual Asian fund as a consequence of this announcement and Mr Lam will continue to be directly responsible for it. We hold Mr Lam in high regard and believe him to be a very capable fund manager, however, we would like to meet him to discuss his and Mr Hargreaves's additional responsibilities and any plans they have going forward as well as gain comfort that his new role will not impact on his fund management duties. We are currently in conversation with Invesco Perpetual regarding setting up a date for our meeting.