David Jane has ramped up the exposure to UK equities in the CF Miton Special Situations fund after taking it on from Martin Gray.
Mr Jane took on the management of the multi-asset fund following the departure of Mr Gray in June this year.
He has implemented some significant changes to the fund to adapt it more to his style of investing.
One of the main changes has been to increase the fund’s exposure to UK equities, particularly large-cap equities that he said are “underpinned by attractive yields and are well diversified by geography and product”.
Although Mr Gray invested in various asset classes and sectors through the use of other funds, Mr Jane prefers to take direct exposure to assets when he can, and has been buying up direct UK equities.
The manager has also upped the fund’s weighting in eurozone equities, again buying companies at the larger end of the market-cap spectrum in sectors such as telecoms and utilities.
To balance out the fund’s equity exposure, Mr Jane has reduced the fund’s exposure to Japanese and Asia Pacific equities.
Mr Jane said the weighting in Asian equities was “larger than we felt comfortable with”, so he has scaled it back by completely selling a regional index tracker, while he has also trimmed the fund’s positions in Japanese equity funds.
Mr Jane has also completely reversed the fund’s position when it comes to US equities.
Mr Gray had been very bearish about the US market and had held a short position, looking to benefit if the index went down.
But Mr Jane has now ditched the short position and has instead initiated a number of positions in larger US companies, particularly those supported by decent yields, matching the policy used when buying UK and European equities.
In addition to the equity changes, Mr Jane also upped the fund’s weighting towards property and developed market government bonds.
