Five Funds to Add Sparkle to your Portfolio this Guy Fawkes Night

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
4 November 2015

Five Funds to Add Sparkle to your Portfolio this Guy Fawkes Night

As we remember Guy Fawkes’ attempt to bring down Parliament by celebrating with bonfires and fireworks, we look to some of the funds that have delivered explosive performance over the last 12-months and ask if they could bring some sparkle to investors' ISAs and pensions.

Jason Hollands, managing director of Tilney Bestinvest, comments:

“The UK Smaller Companies sector has enjoyed a strong rally over the last year at a time when many large, global businesses have been dogged by concerns over the slowdown in China and emerging markets.

“One relatively small fund in this sector that has caught our eye is the AXA Framlington UK Smaller Companies fund. Unlike some of the bigger beasts in the sector which actually invest heavily in mid-caps because of their size, this is a true smaller companies fund with around 40% in AIM. The fund is run by young manager Henry Lowson who took the reins in 2012, a period over which he has propelled the fund to the top of the sector, making it soar 27% over the past year alone. Top holdings in the 80 stock portfolio include plastic packaging firm RPC Group, IT group Redcentric, promotional gifts company 4Imprint and Scottish media firm STV Group which produces the likes of Emmerdale, Coronation Street, the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.”

“Another relatively unknown fund that has delivered a fire cracking performance is the CF Miton UK Value Opportunities fund, this time in the massive UK All Companies sector. The fund is up 25% over the year, representing a 22% outperformance of the FTSE All Share. Co-managed by George Godber and Georgina Hamilton, it focuses on scooping up undervalued companies with strong balance sheets, often where there is a catalyst for change underway such as corporate restructuring. An example is Dairy Crest, owners of the Cathedral City cheese brand, which recently disposed of its loss making milk division or digital payments firm Optimal Payments which acquired its main competitor, Skrill.”

“In the popular and hugely competitive UK Equity Income sector, the Standard Life UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund, which we began backing a couple of years ago, continues to deliver blistering outperformance through an approach which invests right across the UK market cap spectrum, rather than focusing on the ‘usual suspects’ of the FTSE 100 Index. Having wisely avoided commodities and energy stocks, manager Thomas Moore has recently begun building a position in mining giant BHP Billiton.”

“We’ve also recently added to our UK Equity Income line up the Ardevora UK Income fund, managed by Jeremy Lang and William Pattisson, which has yet to arrive on the radar of many advisers. The fund has a distinctive approach of identifying the sources of bias that creep into the markets, creating both risks and pricing anomalies to determine stocks to avoid and others to back. The results have been outstanding, with the fund having outperformed every year since launch in 2011 and top of the sector over the last 12-months with a 15% return, almost twice that of the sector average.”

“Finally, amongst the major equity market sectors, one of the standard-out performers of the last 12 months has been Europe, as the Eurozone economy has been recovering and enjoying two sources of support: a massive stimulus programme from the European Central Bank and low energy prices putting more cash in the pockets of consumers. One of the stellar performers against this backdrop has been Alex Darwall’s Jupiter European fund, a high conviction portfolio of 30-40 shares in world-class companies with unique products or services such as healthcare groups Novo Nordisk and Fresenius, financial services tech firm Wirecard which competes with likes of PayPal and Western Union and RELX (formerly Reed Elsevier) the Anglo-Dutch information provider. The fund has rocketed 21% over the last year, an impressive 15% outperformance of the FTSE Europe ex UK Index.”

“Investors who’ve not taken a close look at their investment for a while might make use of the darker Autumn evenings stuck in doors to review their holdings to see whether any should be chucked in the bonfire and swapped for ones which can add more sparkle.”

-Ends-

Press contacts:

Jason Hollands
0207 189 9919 / 07768 661382
jason.hollands@tilneybestinvest.co.uk

Gillian Kyle
0203 818 6846 / 07989 650 604
gillian.kyle@tilneybestinvest.co.uk

Important information

The value of investments, and the income derived from them, can go down as well as up and you can get back less than you originally invested. Past performance should not be considered a reliable indicator of future performance. This article is not advice to invest or to use our services.

Funds may carry different levels of risk depending on the industry sector(s) in which they invest. You should ensure that you understand the nature of any fund before you invest in it and make yourself aware of these specific risks prior to investing.

Smaller companies shares can be more volatile and less liquid than larger company shares, so smaller companies funds can carry more risk.

About Tilney Bestinvest

Tilney Bestinvest is a leading investment and financial planning firm that builds on a heritage of more than 150 years. We look after more than £9 billion of assets on our clients’ behalf and pride ourselves on offering the very highest levels of professional client service with transparent, competitive pricing across our entire range of solutions.

We offer a range of services for clients whether they would like to have their investments managed by us, require the support of a highly qualified adviser, prefer to make their own investment decisions or want to take more than one approach. We also have a nationwide team of expert financial planners to help clients with all aspects of financial planning, including retirement planning.

We have won numerous awards including UK Wealth Manager of the Year, Low-cost SIPP Provider of the Year and Self-select ISA Provider of the Year 2013, as voted by readers of the Financial Times and Investors Chronicle. We are pleased that our greatest source of new business is personal referrals from existing clients.

Headquartered in Mayfair, London, Tilney Bestinvest employs almost 400 staff across our network of offices, giving us full UK coverage, and we combine our award-winning research and expertise to provide a personalised service to clients whatever their investment needs.

The Tilney Bestinvest Group of Companies comprises the firms Bestinvest (Brokers) Ltd (Reg. No. 2830297), Tilney Investment Management (Reg. No. 02010520), Bestinvest (Consultants) Ltd (Reg. No. 1550116) and HW Financial Services Ltd (Reg. No. 02030706) all of which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 6 Chesterfield Gardens, Mayfair, W1J 5BQ.

For further information, please visit: www.tilneybestinvest.co.uk