Fidelity has been named as Money Management’s Fund House of the Year, with an average return of £1,156 and a sector decile average of 4 across 77 funds over the past 12 months.
The June issue of Money Management analysed the performance of every UK unit trust over the past 12 months to determine which fund group had recorded the best average return across its entire range. Funds selected were all retail funds with a minimum investment of £10,000 or below. These funds were organised by group and then by space, to show the best performers in each area as classified by the Investment Association (IA).
According to Ben Waterhouse, head of retail sales at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, one of the biggest drivers of its overall fund performance over the past year has been successful bottom-up stockpicking. “Our fund managers and analysts see markets only as semi-efficient and build their investment philosophy on an active, bottom-up, research-led investment approach to create competitive advantage.”
Within medium sized groups (those with between 10 and 39 funds) Polar Capital topped the table. The group is at the smaller end with just 10 funds – it posted an average return of £1,256.
The highest return overall comes from Matthews Asia, which was classified as a smaller group, having just seven funds which averaged a 37 per cent return throughout the 12 months to 1 May. This is no surprise due to the group’s focus on Asia and the outperformance seen across the continent. The group, however, saw a -5.8 per cent drop in performance across the funds in last year’s inaugural survey.
In the overall winners section, the top performing fund was the Neuberger Berman China Equity, which tops the Asia Table with a return of £1,735. The second best performer was Fidelity’s China Focus fund. Within Asia funds, Fidelity has come in third among the large groups with an average return of £1,355 across nine funds.
The Mixed Investment space is increasingly popular with investors, as it covers a variety of funds and strategies. In that space Carmignac Gestion topped the Table, with an average of £1,203 but only over two funds. The survey also shows smaller groups have outperformed the larger groups, but they have a much smaller fund range and as such, it is easier to maintain consistent performance.
The rankings are based on the average return for all funds from each group and, they are by no means scientific, nor they should be construed as a recommendation or advice on how you should pick the right funds for your clients.
