Fund Strategy articles from September 2005

Fund Strategy archives from September 2005

COMMENT: Crude panic will not help in the long term.
September 5, 2005... The discussion of Hurricane Katrina's impact underlines the need for a more systematic approach towards the oil price. Debate on the future of crude is too often dominated by short-term factors and even outright panic. Katrina certainly...

Fund sales become sharply divided.
September 5, 2005... The retail fund management industry is polarising between those groups that are taking money and those that are not. According to the latest Pridham Report for the second quarter of 2005, the top 10 groups as judged by net retail sales...

Whittaker takes on joint chief role at New Star.
September 5, 2005... New Star Asset Management has appointed Stephen Whittaker (pictured) as joint chief investment officer. The rapid growth of the asset management group since it was launched in 2001, has led New Star to take the decision to share the role of...

Martin Currie moves to merge retail funds for economies of scale.
September 5, 2005... Martin Currie is seeking unitholder approval to rationalise its retail fund range from 10 funds to eight. Before Scott McKenzie arrives as UK equity income manager from Morley in November it plans to merge its existing #9m Balanced Portfolio...

IN BRIEF: Old Mutual seeks Skandia share.
September 5, 2005... Old Mutual made an offer to acquire the entire issued share capital of Skandia last week, valuing the group at #3.3bn. The offer is conditional on a recommendation from the Skandia board by September 23. Old Mutual plans to retain its...

IN BRIEF: MFS appoints equity analyst.
September 5, 2005... MFS has appointed Anne-Christine Farstad as an equity research analyst, based in London. Farstad will join the team of analysts on the MFS European equity team who manage the range of MFS European equity funds. She will cover homebuilders,...

IN BRIEF: New Star trust earns A rating.
September 5, 2005... The New Star Pacific Growth trust, managed by Ian Beattie, has been given an A rating by Standard & Poor's. Since September 2003, the fund has returned 38.78% compared with the IMA Asia Pacific ex Japan sector average of 33.76%, according to...

IN BRIEF: Dunedin poised for acquisition.
September 5, 2005... Private equity firm Dunedin Capital Partners is in advanced talks to acquire Sand Aire Private Equity. Following the acquisition, Dunedin will have #300m in assets under management, #100m of which will be available for investment in buyouts in...

IN BRIEF: Trustnet launches online advice.
September 5, 2005... Trustnet Adviser has launched a structured product section on its website following a survey of financial advisers in Britain. The survey showed that 88% of advisers surveyed anticipate using structured products in the next year. The Trustnet...

IN BRIEF: Fund scoops top rating from S&P's.
September 5, 2005... The #30m Allianz Pimco UK Corporate Bond fund, managed by Pimco has been awarded an A rating from Standard & Poor's. The fund was made available to retail investors in May this year and had been an institutional fund since August 2002. The...

Team hones its existing funds first.
September 5, 2005... The Henderson multi-manager team will focus on giving its existing funds its full attention before deciding where next to take the range, according to Bill McQuaker, director of multi-manager funds at Henderson. McQuaker (pictured) joined...

Retail sales of funds surge 90% on last year.
September 5, 2005... Net retail sales of investment funds were up 90% in July compared with the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the Investment Management Association. July's net retail sales figure of #852.2m was the highest level...

Cavendish to boost its Oeic range with a specialist Aim fund.
September 5, 2005... Cavendish Asset Management is launching a specialist Alternative Investment Market fund in the next few weeks, which will be managed by Paul Mumford. The fund, which the group plans to call the Cavendish Aim fund, will be the third...

Marlborough widens access to Asia.
September 5, 2005... Marlborough Fund Managers is set to offer investors access to stocks in the Asia Pacific region, following an agreement with Singapore-based fund managers ARN Investment Partners. The Marlborough Eastern Enterprise fund is to be...

Jupiter opens employee-invested fund to market.
September 5, 2005... Jupiter Asset Management has opened its employee-invested Neptune multi- manager fund to the retail market. The half-fettered, half unfettered fund of funds, has been rebranded Jupiter Merlin Balanced Portfolio, making it the fourth fund in...

Central bank trims Europe expectations.
September 5, 2005... The European Central Bank has lowered its projections for real economic growth and expects higher consumer price inflation in the eurozone. However, Standard Life Investments expects the corporate sector to remain strong. ECB president...

Greenspan warns on house prices.
September 5, 2005... Alan Greenspan, the chairman of America's Federal Reserve, has added his influential voice to those arguing there is a risk of a house price crash in the US. Being a central banker his language was guarded. But his message, delivered to...

'Attractive UK mid and large caps still to be found'.
September 5, 2005... There are still decent stories in the British mid and large cap equity sectors despite the difficulty of finding attractive stocks. This is the view of Chou Chong, head of pan-European equities at Aberdeen Asset Management. ...

UK equities surprise with their strength.
September 5, 2005... Investors expecting single-digit returns from British equities this year may have underestimated the strength of stockmarkets. Based on index levels at the end of August, both the FTSE 100 (up 10%) and FTSE 250 (11.7%) indices have performed...

Killer storm Katrina threatens to push oil to $100 mark.
September 5, 2005... The price of crude oil reached a new high of $70 per barrel last week, further confounding expectations that black gold's remarkably strong bull run must soon end. The trigger for the rally was the damage to US oil interests wrought by...

TRENDS: Equities lifted by emerging power.
September 5, 2005... Strong performance by emerging markets in Asia and Latin America coupled with an upturn in the biotechnology sector have boosted the recent performance of Global Growth funds.SU 10pt Nimrod Column Standfirst SU 10pt Nimrod Column Standfirst ...

STRATEGY: Short-lived global pick-up on way.
September 5, 2005... Economic growth looks set to surge in the second half of this year, but interest rate rises and continuing high energy prices could force a return to the slowing economic trend in 2006. Global economic growth will be reasonably robust in...

Q&A: A measured approach to long-term rewards.
September 5, 2005... Nick Train, a director and co-founder of Lindsell Train, answers questions from James Teasdale. Q: The Finsbury Growth & Income trust adopts a highly focused low- turnover investment approach. What drives this management style? A: The...

Fire hazard?
September 5, 2005... Generous tax breaks on venture capital trusts have encouraged a massive influx of funds into such products. But there is alarm that investors are not fully aware that while VCTs can make handsome gains, they can also consume an investor's...

VCT conditions.
September 5, 2005... For a company to qualify as a VCT it must meet certain conditions. A VCT has three years in which to invest at least 70% of assets in qualifying holdings. In addition, no holding in any one company may exceed 15% of a VCT's investments, and a...

Tax treatment of VCTs.
September 5, 2005... The tax breaks afforded to VCT investors are only guaranteed to apply to investments in the 2004/5 and 2005/06 tax years. Under the current regime investors can invest up to #200,000 in a tax year and claim up to 40% in upfront income tax...

CHANNELS: Financial advice with a female perspective.
September 5, 2005... Caroline Anstee, joint founder of Elements IFA, talks to Simon Hildrey about her company. Q:What was the rationale behind setting up Elements IFA? A: We established Elements IFA on 19 May 2005 to provide a service to those people who...

ANALYSIS: Flexibility helps a double recovery.
September 5, 2005... The German economy is starting to look healthier as companies tighten up on costs and offer good value. Cherry-picking the best firms is also helping fund managers to boost performance. August 12, 2005. The business headlines read:...

FoFs: Three strategies for the price of one.
September 5, 2005... An active three-pronged barbell approach means that the percentages of Way Global Red Portfolio's assets which are directed at core, value and growth can vary as the team sees fit. Since Investment Management Selection assumed...

Fund of funds performance data.
September 5, 2005... The Pru Growth and M&G Managed Growth funds have been toppled as the top ranking fund of funds in the Investment Management Association Active Managed sector, over one and three years according to Standard & Poor's. Over one year the...

Fund Manager's Diary: 22-29 August 2005.
September 5, 2005... Monday It's my first day back at work after a week camping with my girlfriend in Devon and Cornwall. As I wriggle my back into the seat, I remind myself that I am getting too old for a week of sleeping on the ground. I sort through the email...

Technology must be aimed at production.
September 12, 2005... Ben Hunt makes a useful distinction in this week's cover story between technology for personal consumption and that used for business (see page 22). He argues that technology investment in the late 1990s was largely focused on business use...

Shareholders trounce Murray rebel.
September 12, 2005... All resolutions put forward by rebel shareholder Charles Clark to remove the boards of the Murray VCT, VCT 2, and VCT 3, were defeated at extraordinary general meetings of the trusts last week. Clark received less than 30% of shareholder...

Fidelity Special Situations set to split into two.
September 12, 2005... The #5.4bn Fidelity Special Situations fund soft-closed to investors last week with the annual management charge increasing by 1.75% to 5.25%. Fidelity also announced that Anthony Bolton's high-profile portfolio is to split into two funds...

Neptune reclassifies former Quilter funds in bid to streamline.
September 12, 2005... Neptune has rebranded all four funds acquired from Morgan Stanley Quilter last year under its own banner and has planned several changes across the former Quilter range. The Neptune Multi-Manager Income fund, which was previously the...

IN BRIEF: UBS seals deal with Julius Baer.
September 12, 2005... UBS has agreed to sell specialist asset manager GAM and its private banks (Banco di Lugano, Ehinger & Armand von Ernst and Ferrier Lullin) to Julius Baer in a deal worth Swfr5.6bn (#2.4bn). The deal consists of Swfr3.8bn in cash and a 21.5%...

IN BRIEF: Schroders gets new fund manager.
September 12, 2005... Schroders has appointed Sonja Schemmann as a fund manager on its global equities team. Schemman will manage the Schroder ISF Global Equity Yield fund and a new equity yield fund in Europe. Schemmann was formerly a senior fund manager for...

IN BRIEF: Swip shifts fund into unclassified.
September 12, 2005... Swip has moved its SW Strategic Growth portfolio into the IMA Unclassified sector, in line with the six other funds in the suite of Swip managed portfolios. The fund of funds was previously in the IMA Balanced Managed sector. According to the...

IN BRIEF: HSBC creates a global officer role.
September 12, 2005... HSBC Investments has appointed Joanna Munro to the newly created role of global chief investment officer. Munro will be responsible for the group's global investment strategy and process. She reports to HSBC Investments global chief...

IN BRIEF: Absolute unveils hedge product.
September 12, 2005... Absolute Fund Management has launched the Absolute Focus fund, a performance fee-only fund of hedge funds. The group will be charging no basic investment management fee with investors paying a performance fee of 15% if positive absolute returns...

Correction: Investment funds.(Correction Notice)
September 12, 2005... Net retail sales of investment funds increased ten-fold in July compared with the same month last year and not 90%, as identified last week in the article "Retail sales of funds surge 90% on last year" (Fund Strategy, September 5, 2005, page...

Investec launches accumulator fund.
September 12, 2005... Investec Asset Management hopes to tap into demand for zero-dividend preference shares with the launch of the Investec Capital Accumulator Trust (ICAT). With a large number of split-caps due to wind up in the next few years and a...

Prosper 80 fund prepares to open for business.
September 12, 2005... The Old Mutual Prosper 80 fund opens to retail investors on September 19 having grown to #45m since launch. As reported in Fund Strategy (August 1, page 6) the portfolio offers investors a protected price of 80% of the highest fund price,...

Pressure to perform on rise, warns UBS chief.
September 12, 2005... The reputations of European fund managers will be made or lost over the coming year, according to Neil Mears, head of European portfolio construction at UBS. He says owing to the "most interesting European markets" he has witnessed for...

IN BRIEF: Gartmore appoints senior managers.
September 12, 2005... Gartmore Investment Management has appointed Gerald Campbell and Jeffrey Kerrigan as senior portfolio managers in the group's quantitative strategies team. The team comprises 15 members and manages about $3bn (#1.6bn) in assets. Campbell and...

IN BRIEF: Merrill Lynch gets equity director.
September 12, 2005... Merrill Lynch Investment Managers has appointed Stuart Reeve as a director in its global equity team, reporting to Ian Rowley, head of the MLIM global equity team. Reeve will be responsible for investments in the food, beverage and tobacco...

IN BRIEF: Neil Gardiner joins Morley team.
September 12, 2005... Neil Gardiner has joined Morley Fund Management as a residential property fund manager. Gardiner is manager of Morley's three residential property portfolios: the Beach Student Accommodation, Tri Investment Residential and Capital Residential...

Online gambling firm hits FTSE 100.
September 12, 2005... Online gaming firm PartyGaming joined the FTSE 100 last week, less than three months after being floated on the London Stock Exchange. The move comes after PartyGaming's share price fell by a third earlier in the week, down from 156.75p...

Long-term trend signals boost to growth funds.
September 12, 2005... Capital growth funds had a good three months to the end of August with the average fund outperforming income portfolios by 1.3%. David Lis, the manager of the #278m Norwich UK Growth fund, says a return to favour of the more traditional...

Abbey links new plan to house price index.
September 12, 2005... Abbey has launched its Residential Property Plan, a structured product with returns linked to the Halifax House Price index. Through the plan, investors effectively buy shares in a Dublin-based closed-ended investment company, of which...

IN BRIEF: Committee keeps rates on hold.
September 12, 2005... The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England voted last week to keep interest rates on hold at 4.5%. Last month, the committee elected to lower interest rates by a quarter point. Prior to that, rates had been on hold at 4.75% since...

IN BRIEF: Barings set to launch hedge fund.
September 12, 2005... Baring Asset Management is to launch a long/short equity hedge fund on November 1. The Baring EMEA Absolute Return fund will aim to provide an annual return of more than 20% by investing in a portfolio of equities from Eastern Europe, the...

Private companies flourish in China.
September 12, 2005... The private sector in China has flourished in the past 15 years, according to Asian investment group CLSA. China's Capitalists, the latest CLSA report, says private businesses now account for more than 70% of the nation's GDP. The paper...

Analysts predict fall in GDP following Katrina.
September 12, 2005... Real GDP growth in America could slow by as much as one percentage point during the second half of this year as a result of Hurricane Katrina, according to a report by America's Congressional Budget Office. According to the report, the...

Latin American upturn hinges on whim of global cycle.
September 12, 2005... Over the past year Latin American funds are among the best-performing of all portfolios. Four Latin American funds are among the 10 funds in the UK retail market with the highest returns in the 12 months to September 8, according to...

TRENDS: What a difference a few years makes.
September 12, 2005... Technology stocks have recovered well from the battering they took between 2000 and 2002, but investors would still do well to remember the lessons surrounding the 'new paradigm'. It is difficult to take a considered view of the market for...

STRATEGY: Lies, damn lies and stockbrokers.
September 12, 2005... Andrew Smithers, chairman of Smithers & Co, a firm that advises on international asset allocation, gives a tongue-in-cheek guide to the not so noble art of stockbroker economics. There is a vast difference between the economics propounded...

Q&A: Low risk and healthy returns for a quiet life.
September 12, 2005... Alastair Mundy, head of Investec's UK contrarian investment team, is questioned by James Teasdale. Q: The Investec Capital Accumulator investment trust will invest in equities and equity-related derivatives to create an investment...

Alienated nation.
September 12, 2005... Gadgets have seduced the consumer - sales of iPods, digital cameras and plasma screens have rocketed - and once again technology is a good bet for investors. But investment in productive technology is lacking and without it industry and the...

CHANNELS: Separate service offers structured products.
September 12, 2005... Jim Goddard-Jones, head of Bristol & West's third-party distribution business, is questioned by Adam Lewis. Q: What service do you offer to IFAs? A: We are essentially an office that manufactures and markets a range of structured...

ANALYSIS: Reassurance for Bolton Wonderers.
September 12, 2005... For its 250,000 investors, the splitting in two of Fidelity Special Situations is big news. But it is worth taking a moment to look beyond the hype at what manager Anthony Bolton is doing. You will all know by now that Fidelity Special...

FOCUS: Relaxed ethos and premier service.
September 12, 2005... Premier Asset Management's range of products has mushroomed recently and its funds perform broadly above average. But the time has come to consolidate the message, finds Sarah Godfrey. In a poll published in June, Guildford in Surrey was...

FoFs: Inside track on a house of funds.
September 12, 2005... While fettered funds of funds may not be able to boast the unbiased fund selection of their unfettered counterparts, they do have advantages, according to Britannic's Graeme Johnston. Launched in March 1991, the Britannic Managed Portfolio...

Fund of funds performance data.
September 12, 2005... The top two funds of funds over both one and three years have remained unchanged since the last time we examined the IMA Balanced Managed sector (August 8). Retaining its top spot is the largest fund of funds in the sector, the #759.5m M&G...

Fund Manager's Diary: 22 August to 4 September 2005.
September 12, 2005... Monday Day 22 in the North Investment Partners house. An early start finds me in Surrey for a breakfast meeting with an intermediary firm with several holdings in the recently renamed Neptune Multi-Manager funds, which I jointly manage with...

You can't compare houses with tulips.
September 19, 2005... It is often said that financial markets are driven by fear and greed. The problem with such statements is that they are ahistorical. They take no account of the fundamentally different contexts in which financial markets can operate. The...

SVM readies Alpha fund for launch.
September 19, 2005... SVM Asset Management plans to launch the new SVM UK Alpha fund next month. The long-only equity portfolio will be run by Jeremy Hall using a focused approach, holding 35-60 stocks, and benchmarked against the FTSE All-Share index. Hall joined...

Graham-Brown quits Threadneedle for Morley.
September 19, 2005... Robert Graham-Brown is to join Morley Fund Management as North American equities manager on October 3. Graham-Brown will take responsibility for managing both retail and institutional funds and reports to Penny Kyle, head of North American...

Brics and Reits Sicavs at Franklin Templeton.
September 19, 2005... Franklin Templeton Investments is seeking regulatory approval to launch four new funds into its Luxembourg Sicav range, which will all carry sterling distributor share class status. These include a Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) fund,...

IN BRIEF: Ethical fund for Marlborough.
September 19, 2005... Marlborough Fund Managers is preparing to launch an ethical fund managed by Bob Brown, manager of the Quantock UK Growth fund. The ethical fund will be run along the same lines as portfolios Brown runs for charitable foundations at his own...

IN BRIEF: Jupiter Japan Income opens.
September 19, 2005... Jupiter Asset Management has launched its Japan Income fund. As reported in Fund Strategy on July 11, 2005, the fund will be managed by Simon Somerville and seeks to achieve a yield of about 30% above the Topix index, which equates to about 2%...

IN BRIEF: Cofunds assets pass #5bn mark.
September 19, 2005... Assets on the Cofunds fund platform have surpassed the #5bn barrier. This represents growth of 40% in the past eight months. Cofunds says recent stockmarket growth accounts for some of this rise but argues that most has come through inflows...

IN BRIEF: Stock Exchange embraces Matrix.
September 19, 2005... Matrix Group has received approval from the Stock Exchange for the forthcoming new issue of the Matrix Income & Growth VCT 3 and joint offer for the Foresight 3 & 4 VCTs. The Matrix Income & Growth VCT 3 aims to raise #20m and is managed by...

IN BRIEF: Witan to waive 1% dealing fee.
September 19, 2005... The 1% dealing charge on new lump sum investments into the Witan investment trust via the Witan Share Plan is being waived from October 1 to November 30, 2005. The 1% dealing charge has not been waived for new investments into Jump, the savings...

IN BRIEF: Share earnings up 21% for F&C.
September 19, 2005... F&C Asset Management has announced a 21.2% increase in underlying earnings per share and a 42.2% operating margin for the six months to June 30, 2005, according to unaudited interim results. The board has declared an unchanged interim...

Threadneedle cues up bond fund.
September 19, 2005... The Threadneedle Absolute Return Bond fund is set to launch in October. As reported in Fund Strategy (April 11, page 5), the Ucits III fund will fall between a long-only and hedge fund structure. Managed by Quentin Fitzsimmons, the...

C-share issue ahead for Northern Venture Trust.
September 19, 2005... Northern Venture Managers will launch a C-share issue for the Northern Venture Trust venture capital trust, which will be open for subscription at the end of October. The group is hoping to raise #30m from the new issue, which will become...

Framlington UK fund thrives under Thomas.
September 19, 2005... Three years after joining Framlington from ABN Amro, Nigel Thomas has seen the assets of his UK Select Opportunities fund grow more than eight-fold. After converting the old smaller companies-oriented Framlington Capital Trust into its current...

IN BRIEF: CPI up 2.4% in year to August.
September 19, 2005... The consumer prices index (CPI) increased by 2.4% over the year to August 2005, according to National Statistics. The retail prices index was up 2.8% over the same period. The corresponding figures for July were 2.3% (CPI) and 2.9% (RPI). The...

IN BRIEF: Murray Income trust grows 23%.
September 19, 2005... The Murray Income investment trust posted a 23.6% increase in net asset value over the year to June 30, 2005, according to preliminary unaudited results. With a proposed final dividend of 5.65p, the total dividend increase for the year amounts...

Correction: Fidelity.(Correction Notice)
September 19, 2005... Fidelity has increased the initial charge by 1.75% to 5.25% on Anthony Bolton's Special Situations fund rather than, as stated last week, the annual management charge (Fund Strategy, September 12, 2005, page 5). The increase does not apply...

Managers eye up Japan and Germany.
September 19, 2005... Fund managers have turned particularly bullish on the prospects for Japan and Germany, according to the latest Merrill Lynch monthly surveys. Japan is widely seen as the investment region with the most undervalued market. David Bowers,...

Close Wins is cautious about investment trusts.
September 19, 2005... After two years of outperformance it is becoming increasingly difficult to find value in investment trusts, says Charles Cade, head of research at Close Wins. Excluding private equity, hedge fund and direct property funds, Cade notes...

Overseas businesses look to buy UK firms.
September 19, 2005... The trend in overseas companies acquiring British businesses is set to increase, according to Michael Taylor, head of equities at Threadneedle Investments. Several large European firms have been involved in acquisitions of British...