Fidelity has ended months of speculation by announcing that Sanjeev Shah is to replace Britain’s best-known and longest-serving fund manager, Anthony Bolton, at the helm of its flagship UK Special Situations fund.

Shah, manager of Fidelity’s Luxembourg-based European Aggressive fund, will take control of the £3.2bn Special Situations fund on January 1. He will also run the £400m Fidelity Special Values investment trust from the same date.

Financial advisers have welcomed the appointment of the 36-year old who has worked at Fidelity for 11 years, including a successful three-year stint running the Fidelity UK Aggressive Fund.

Darius McDermott at Chelsea Financial Services, an adviser, said: “I think Shah is the best man for the job. He has a proven track record, good performance numbers, experience running large sums of money and we expect the Special Situations fund to be in safe hands going forward.”

Most advisers believe new investors should not rush into buying the fund, though, adopting a wait and see approach as Shah beds in.

Mark Dampier, head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “When managing the Fidelity Aggressive fund Shah’s track record was excellent although it has been more mixed in recent time. We feel that Shah needs to settle into the role before we move the fund from a hold to a buy.”

Fidelity said it had picked Shah because he has a similar style of managing money to Bolton, focused on investing in unloved and unfashionable companies which offer great value. This contrarian approach has served Bolton well enabling him to deliver average annual returns of 20% since the fund’s launch in December 1979.

Bolton said: “I believe that he has what it takes to sustain the success for the many thousands of investors who have supported me in the past.”

Shah, a Cambridge economics graduate, will hand over management of the European Aggressive fund on June 1 to Mario Frontini, manager of Fidelity’s Italian fund.

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