Multi-manager picks - 100 Club favourites

José María Martínez-Sanjuán, Santander

JPM US Select

We appreciate the disciplined investment process of this fund, which combines JPMorgan’s time-tested and refined dividend discount methodology with the experience of a very skilled team of managers. In our view, the team’s strong focus on stock selection, rather than attempting to time sector allocation, has helped the fund deliver more consistent alpha than many of its peers in the US large cap space over the long term.

Legg Mason Clearbridge US Aggressive Growth

Co-managers Richard Freeman and Evan Bauman bring a wealth of experience and a long-term perspective to the table in this strategy. The team is not afraid to make big bets where they see opportunities, whether in sectors or in specific stocks, and this has certainly paid off for patient investors who have realised strong gains in the fund over the past few years.

Henderson European Focus Trust

John Bennett has the rare ability to combine limpid top-down perspectives and sometimes-contrarian bottom-up stock picking. He is style-agnostic and not afraid to shift the allocation of his fund, but his flexible approach is grounded in the ability to discern reliable long-term earnings growth trends.

JPM Europe Dynamic ex-UK

This is one of the funds managed by the 40-strong Behavioural Finance team at JPMorgan. It takes a multi-cap, unconstrained approach to European equity investing. JPM’s tried-and-tested screens for value, quality and momentum support the high turnover and nimble approach of this strategy.

M&G Asian

This is one of the few value-orientated strategies within the Asian region. The team aims to identify undervalued companies that are improving their levels of returns of capital through four drivers of value creation: external changes, internal changes, asset growth and quality company. As a result of the long-term approach, the portfolio turnover is designed to be low. This is a unique and disciplined approach to investing in the Asian markets.

Ian Aylward, Aviva Investors

Henderson UK Absolute Return

Ben Wallace has been at the helm of this fund for many years, first at Gartmore and then Henderson. More recently, he has been joined by Luke Newman. Performance has been consistently good for almost a decade, with only a couple of pauses for breath (2007 and 2012). This is rare for a UK equity long-short fund. The duo trade tactically around positions on recent stock news flow and developments.

Baillie Gifford Japan Trust

This fund has been managed for more than a decade by Sarah Whitley, who has spent her entire 33-year career with the firm, almost entirely on the Japanese desk. Unusually for a Japanese fund, it has a growth bias, but this has not hampered performance, which has been very consistent.

Royal London Sterling Credit

This fund benefits from the scale of the fixed income resources at Royal London, but without the scale of assets of some peers with assets under management below £400m. This enables the fund to deviate noticeably from its benchmark and invest in less liquid issues, most notably several without a credit rating. The team has been very stable, with no departures in the last decade.

First State Asia Pacific Leaders

Angus Tulloch was the founder of the team and philosophy in 1998. He has built a fantastic team around him, with clear roles, career progression opportunities and a succession plan. The philosophy is straightforward, appealing and unwavering – quality firms that protect on the downside over the long term – while the stock analysts work within a disciplined and robust framework. He will leave a successful legacy of more than £30bn in assets.

Liontrust UK Smaller Companies

In contrast to many so-called Smaller Companies funds, this product invests in the smallest of UK and AIM stocks, benchmarked against the FTSE Small Cap index rather than the NUMIS Smaller Companies fund. As such, it is notably capacity-constrained, but comfortably resides below such a ceiling. The distinct approach focuses on intellectual capital and employee ownership. The fund has returned more than 200 per cent in five years.

Gary Potter, F&C Investments

PFS Chelverton UK Equity Income

At around £300m, this fund remains comparatively nimble and targets a portfolio of UK small and mid-cap value stocks paying good dividends. Managers Dave Taylor and Dave Horner have produced some outstanding results relative to the sectors since our involvement five years ago, when the fund was £5m in size.

CF Morant Wright Nippon Yield

This solely focused Japanese equity business was originally founded by Stephen Morant and Ian Wright, but now consists of a six-strong team of experienced Japanese investors. The team employs a fundamental-driven bottom-up process when it comes to stock selection and looks to invest in undervalued companies and place a particular emphasis on balance sheet strength and price-to-book ratios.

Royal London Sterling Credit Fund

This is managed by Paola Binns, who is part of the eight-strong credit team at Royal London headed by Jonathan Platt. They are experienced managers who conduct their own detailed credit analysis – this includes the unrated space, which has been a positive driver of returns for the fund.

Hermes Global Emerging Markets

Gary Greenberg has managed the fund since July 2011. Following initial liquidity and quant screens, the team undertakes fundamental analysis on the stocks in its universe, looking to invest in quality companies that are mispriced by the market and construct a portfolio of between 60 and 75 companies.

Standard Life UK Equity Income Unconstrained

Managed by Tom Moore, this is a high-quality fund benefiting from a strong UK equity team. The unconstrained mandate allows Mr Moore to tap into the team’s best ideas list, but also to run the fund with his own flavour of stock picking. He tends to run an overweight to small and mid-cap stocks, but does not like to pigeonhole his approach, preferring maximum flexibility. The performance results are compelling.