One of the most notable manager moves of the year came in April, when the highly rated small-cap manager Bill Hench and his team left Royce Investment Partners and joined First Eagle Investment Management.

Hench along with his co-managers Suzanne Franks and Rob Kosowsky, and senior research analyst Adam Mielnik, had previously run the then $2.1bn Royce Opportunity fund, which at the time of their exit was ranked second out of 108 Small Value funds tracked by Citywire for three-year total returns to the end of March, up 66.5% compared to 30.8% for the category average, over that time.

Hench is now head of small cap investments at First Eagle, reporting to the firm’s president and chief executive Mehdi Mahmud, and he runs the First Eagle Small Cap Opportunity fund, alongside Franks and Kosowsky, which launched on July 1.