Michael Dobson has good reason to wish he had retired as chief executive of UK-listed fund manager Schroders a year ago.

Dobson, who joined Schroders in 2001, turned Schroders round from a lossmaker to a company with growing profits and would have won plaudits had he quit even as late as this August, when Roger Yates announced his retirement from Schroders' UK rival Henderson Global Investors.