Investors pulled £1.2 billion from Fidelity’s UK unit trusts in the first quarter of this year as nervous savers took fright at the imminent departure of Anthony Bolton, its star manager.

According to the highly regarded Pridham report, net outflows from Britain’s biggest retail fund management business were almost double that of Resolution Asset Management, the next-highest loser for the first three months of 2007.

The report came as it emerged that the firm was moving into private equity with the launch of Fidelity Equity Partners, a fund that will focus on leveraged buyouts of small to mid-size companies in Europe and the US.

Savers have been deterred by a year of poor performance by Fidelity, which has £30 billion under management in the UK. Some of Fidelity’s most popular funds, including the £5 billion Fidelity European, run by Tim McCarron, have floundered over the past 12 months.

Mr McCarron’s fund, in the top quartile of investment performance over the past three, five and seven years, is stuck in the fourth quartile, although his latest figures are expected to show an improvement.

Mr Bolton, whose Special Situations fund has returned an annualised 20 per cent over the 28 years that he has run it, is Britain’s best-known fund manager. Nicknamed “the Silent Assassin” for taking boardroom scalps including Michael Green of Carlton Communications, a title he is known to loathe, he said last year that he would step down on December 31, 2007.

Although his successors have been appointed — Jorma Korhonen took over just under half of the Special Situations fund last September and it was announced last Tuesday that Sanjeev Shah would assume control of the remainder — financial advisers were critical of the “long-winded” appointment process.

Brian Dennehy, of Dennehy Weller, said: “Something is wrong at Fidelity.”

Last April Fidelity appointed Nicky Richards, formerly of Schroders, as its new UK and European chief investment officer in an effort to shore up the business. Although Ms Richards has admitted that the company still has some difficulties to overcome, outsiders are confident that Fidelity will make a comeback.

One top fund manager said: “Fidelity’s going through some issues but they will fight back.”

The Pridham figures do not take into account non-UK-domiciled funds, which means that sales figures from Fidelity’s newer, Luxembourg-based funds, are not included. The figures are also affected by Fidelity’s decision in September 2005 to increase the initial charges on the Special Situations fund in order to deter new business, removing the opportunity to offset outflows with sales.

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