Kate Howitt retires from Fidelity

Fidelity International has announced a departure of Kate Howitt, portfolio manager for the Fidelity Australian Opportunities Fund, after 18 years with a firm.

Howitt will step down from her responsibilities on 30 September however she will support the smooth transition to her successors until January 2023, the company said in a press release.

Following the announcement, the Fidelity Australian Opportunities Fund will be led by Casey McLean from 1 October 2022, who was appointed lead portfolio manager, and Clare Coleman, who was appointed co-portfolio manager.

Howitt joined Fidelity in 2004 and was a founding member of the Fidelity International Australia team, working first as an analyst covering the financials sector before becoming a portfolio manager in 2007

From 2007, she has managed the Fidelity Australian Opportunities Fund and a range of client mandates.

Prior to Fidelity, she held a number of senior roles at AMP and also served as an analyst portfolio manager at AMP Capital. She also worked as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group.

Casey, who would lead the fund from October, has 20 years of investment experience and joined Fidelity in 2015 as an investment analyst in Hong Kong covering regional energy and regional technology hardware and semiconductors.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Casey was a portfolio manager and analyst at AMP Capital Investors from 2010-2015 and he also held a similar role at Three Pillars Portfolio Managers, Sydney and has experience as an equity analyst for DVA Capital and Bell Potter Securities.

Fidelity said that the appointments of Casey and Clare reflected its “long-standing tradition of promoting successful investment professionals to a wider platform”.

The focus of this fund would remain on identifying companies through a rigorous bottom-up stock picking approach, with the underlying investment philosophy aimed to identifying under-appreciated structural growth in companies with strong management teams, favourable industry structures and unique competitive advantages.