■ Hermes Global Emerging Markets
As differentiation increases across emerging markets, a shift towards alpha rather than beta has become the key focus this fund. The stockpicking approach by manager Gary Greenberg is well suited to capitalise on this. As a bottom-up stockpicker, who is entirely comfortable investing away from the index and going off benchmark, Mr Greenberg’s focus towards quality companies in a concentrated structure is very attractive.
■ Polar Capital Global Technology
Led by the experienced Ben Rogoff, who has been a technology investor for 20 years, the team operates a totally unconstrained approach. This allows it to find the best technology ideas in any sector without being constrained by the benchmark. The team is unafraid to look at new technologies early in their life, and this bottom-up approach often has a bias towards smaller, more emergent technology companies where the managers believe they have an edge. While potentially more volatile, this theme on a long-term view remains very interesting.
■ Artemis High Income
This fund capitalises on the high-quality equity and fixed interest resources at Artemis. Led by Alex Ralph, the investment process has no particular style bias and relies on high-quality stock and bond selection to drive returns. Further, with no reference to the benchmark, this means all positions in the portfolio are on merit. The approach has been consistent over a long period, and while taking slightly higher risk than some in the sector, the fund is a strong choice.
■ Jupiter UK Special Situations
The patient, contrarian approach of Ben Whitmore is intuitively attractive in a world of instant gratification, fashions and fads. By taking a long-term approach and, importantly, being prepared to wait to be rewarded, the clear investment philosophy and process is effectively implemented. The contrarian approach results in an unconstrained portfolio that can look very different to the benchmark, meaning investors need to invest for the long term.
Nathan Sweeney, senior investment manager, Architas
■ Hermes Global Emerging Markets
This fund has consistently beaten the benchmark in recent years under the management of the experienced Gary Greenberg since 2011. Although supported by a relatively small team compared with some of its rivals – with just seven members overall – it has proved adept at both country and stock selection. The team’s approach starting with macro-economic themes then drilling down to find quality companies to fill the chosen asset allocation clearly seems to be working.
■ Man GLG Japan Core Alpha
Managed by the highly experienced and stable team at GLG, headed by Stephen Harker, the fund operates a contrarian value style that focuses on simplistic and observable metrics, such as price-to-book and dividend yield. Over the long term the vehicle has delivered strong outperformance versus its peers, and the benchmark, by remaining flexible and rotating the portfolio continually into out-of-favour names and sectors. The portfolio is heavily invested in the largest Topix companies as value becomes more and more concentrated.
