John Richards, a key witness from Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), in the Unilever case, has said that errors of judgement on MLIM's part contributed to underperformance in Unilever's portfolio.
Richards was the leader of MLIM's Select team, and the supervisor of Alistair Lennard, who was directly responsible for the UK equity portfolio in the Unilever fund. In his witness statement, submitted on the 17th day of the trial, Richards said: "At the time, it seemed very unlikely that the high value of sterling could be sustained. This was particularly so against the background of an incoming Labour government. However, the failure to react was, with the benefit of hindsight, an error of judgement that contributed to the poor performance for Unilever."
