The Small to Mid Investment Group category of the Investment Adviser 100 Club has seen an influx of new entrants in 2014, although the number of funds managed by these houses has fallen year on year.
Argonaut Capital has joined the category, having done well for itself since becoming operationally independent of Ignis in 2012. Old Mutual Global Investors, Premier Asset Management and Royal London Asset Management have also joined, with Henderson Global Investors completing the line-up. In 2013, 11 of the 85 funds in the Club were managed by small to mid-sized investment groups; in 2014, this has increased to 16.
There have been many changes across all categories, with new fund groups emerging and larger investment houses recording a slight drop in membership. As in 2013, Henderson accounts for the most member funds. However, it is followed by Invesco Perpetual – a change from last year, when Schroders took second place.
Schroders’ fortunes have changed markedly. It has only three funds in the Club, down from 12 in 2013. The funds it adopted through its acquisition of Cazenove have not perform as well as they did last year – none of the four ex-Cazenove funds on last year’s list have retained their membership.
There is a more even spread of member funds across most categories, with every sector seeing changes in membership. Henderson’s total number of member funds has dropped from eight to six, with the company falling out of the UK Smaller Companies category.
Under the updated rules of this year’s list – a large investment manager is defined as having at least £100bn in global assets, including the assets of its parent group – Henderson now falls under the Small to Mid Investment Group category; previously, it was a Large Investment Group.
Baillie Gifford, which has moved the other way, has three members this year: the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, the Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Growth fund and the Baillie Gifford Japan Trust. Both Henderson and Baillie Gifford have appeared on the list for three consecutive years, reflecting their consistency. Henderson has had 17 funds on the list over the three-year period, while Baillie Gifford has had 10.
Invesco has maintained five funds, but its sector make-up has changed. It has dropped from the Japanese Equity, Sterling Strategic Bond and Specialist Bond groups and now appears in the Global Emerging Markets, European Equity and Asia Pacific Equity categories. It has also maintained its place in the Mixed Asset Income and Sterling Corporate Bond groups.
The members of the Passive Investment category have remained the same, with one exception: ETF Securities has replaced db-X trackers. On another note, European Equity has seen a resurgence: all the funds in the category are new members.
Nyree Stewart is features editor at Investment Adviser. Tahmid Choudhury is a freelancer writer
