Richard Buxton has stepped down as CEO of Merian Global Investors (MGI) with immediate effect in order to solely focus on investment matters. Although he will remain on the firm's board, he has passed over CEO responsibilities to MGI's former non-executive director Mark Gregory.

Mr Buxton remains invested in the business and as head of UK equities. He will also remain as manager of the Merian UK Alpha fund, and therefore we will continue to support the strategy with a AA rating.

In addition to this, we have also learned that Simon Murphy, manager of the Merian UK Equity fund has left the business. Although Mr Buxton has been named the fund's replacement manager and there are no short term plans to change the strategy's mandate, Mr Buxton's management style is quite different to that of Mr Murphy's, consequently, we have removed this fund's A rating.