INVESTMENT management specialist Ashburton is not staging an annual conference in Jersey this year.

Instead the company is increasing its profile in London and targeting the professional intermediary market. In a separate announcement the company says it is also losing its key global investment strategist, Peter Lucas, who was one of the regular in-house conference speakers.

Mr Lucas, who has worked for the company for 14 years, has already been appointed as a strategist at RBC Wealth Management. Ashburton’s annual conference has traditionally been one of the most high-profile events in the Island’s financial services calendar, attracting headline speakers such as the South African president F W De Klerk, former UK Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, and economic commentator for The Times newspaper, Anatole Kaletsky. Other previous headliners include former UK Prime Ministers John Major and Edward Heath.

Last year’s keynote address was given by ‘gloom and boom’ investment analyst Dr Marc Faber and the theme was 25-25 Vision, in view of the 25 years since Ashburton was set up in Jersey. Managing director Peter Bourne said it was ‘time to take a break and maybe try something different’. However, he said that a conference would still be taking place in South Africa in May, as well as six-monthly events in the UK.

• Picture: Peter Bourne: ‘Time to try something different’