Vanguard Group Drops Provident as Manager

Vanguard Group said Thursday that it had dropped Provident Investment Counsel as co-manager of its $757-million Mid-Cap Growth Fund.

A spokesman for Provident, based in Pasadena, was not available for comment.

Vanguard said William Blair & Co. had been named a new co-manager and would split the management duties equally with Chartwell Investment Partners, a current co-manager. A Vanguard spokeswoman said the decision followed a review by fund trustees of current and prospective advisors.

“There’s no question that they never really gained the confidence of Vanguard’s board,” said Daniel Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors.

He noted that the fund was known as the Provident Investment Counsel Mid Cap Fund until it was acquired by Vanguard in 2002, with Provident staying on as manager.

“They had a couple of really great years prior to Vanguard adopting it,” Wiener said. But, he said, it was crushed in the bear market, losing 60% from August 2000 to February 2003.

Vanguard, based in Valley Forge, Pa., manages $980 billion.