Each ‘focus on’ examines the objective of the fund, an analysis of recent performance, the manager, charges and other factors.

Within this ‘focus on’ we take a closer look at the M&G Recovery fund. This fund sits within the UK Equities asset class.

Fund objective

This fund aims to achieve capital growth by investing predominantly in a diversified range of securities issued by companies which are out of favour, in difficulty or whose future prospects are not fully recognised by the market. There is no particular income yield target.

Track record

This is a first quartile fund over one, three and five years.

For the year to date it has returned 49.20% compared to a sector average return of 35.77%. This places it 62nd out of 590 funds in the IMA sector.

This fund has a strong and consistent long-term performance record, demonstrating first quartile performance in discrete annual periods back to 2004/05, with the exception of a discrete annual period in 2005/06 when it returned second quartile returns.

The manager

This fund has been managed by Tom Dobell since March 2000. He has over twenty years’ investment experience, mainly with institutional portfolios. Dobell joined M&G in 1992 and is a member of the small cap team.

Tom Dobell previously worked for Phillips & Drew (PDFM) as a fund manager within their charity and small pension fund division. He graduated from Writtle College, after studying agriculture, in 1986.

It is worth noting that Dobell never invests in a stock without first meeting the management team from that company.

Style

This fund is run bottom-up with a long term absolute return ethos. It invests in companies of all sizes at different stages of recovery across all phases of the business cycle. The manager aims to find stocks where share prices have fallen well below their true worth, making them good value.

There is a flexible and pragmatic approach to stocks and the manager aims to hold stocks for between three and five years. Part of the approach taken by this fund manager is personally meeting all members of the management team for selected stocks on a regular basis, preferably at their own premises.

Charges

The fund has a 4.00% initial charge and a 1.5% annual management charge, with a total expense ratio (TER) of 1.65%.

For the BrilliantWithMoney SIPP, this initial charge is discounted to 0.25% and the annual management charge is discounted to 0.75%.

Conclusion

This is a fund where the manager is prepared to take a contrarian view and find stocks which are out of favour with over investors. There is reasonable diversification within the fund, with the portfolio selecting stocks which are unloved, stabilising, recovering well and mature companies. It has delivered strong consistent performance over an extended period of time.

The low portfolio turnover rate keeps total expenses reasonably low quite a specialist fund. This is a big fund, with over £4bn of assets under management, but manager Tom Dobell copes well with this level of cash to invest and there are no signs that he is struggling as the fund continues to grow.

Martin Bamford is site editor of BrilliantWithMoney and a Chartered Financial Planner at Informed Choice.

The small but important print: This article was produced for information only and should not be considered a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment fund. Seek advice from a professional independent financial adviser before making a decision. The performance data in this article was provided by Financial Express and was correct as at 21st October 2009.

Each ‘focus on’ examines the objective of the fund, an analysis of recent performance, the manager, charges and other factors.

Within this ‘focus on’ we take a closer look at the Caznove European fund. This fund sits within the European Equities asset class.

Fund objective

This fund aims to achieve long-term capital growth by investing in any or all European markets, excluding the UK. It aims to maximise the overall rate of return with capital growth as the primary goal.

The Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) of this fund seeks to invest in a diversified list of companies. The manager looks for industry groups demonstrating above average growth prospects; factors such as strong financial characteristics and proven management are emphasised.

This fund has a flexible country allocation strategy which delivers additional diversification.

Track record

This is a first quartile fund over one, three and five years. For the year to date it has returned 15.79% compared to a sector average return of 10.17%. This places it 23rd out of 196 funds in the sector.

This fund has a strong and consistent long-term performance record, with first or second quartile performance in every discrete annual period since 2004.

The managers

This fund is managed by Chris Rice and Steve Cordell. Rice is the head of Cazenove’s European team and Cordell is their pan-European fund manager. They previously worked together at HSBC.

Rice has been with Cazenove since 2002 and has been running this fund since joining them. He has seventeen years fund management experience, previously running the HSBC European Growth fund between 1999 and 2002.

The management partnership of Rice and Cordell is supported by two dedicated European analysts; Lionel Rayon and Morten Herholdt. This small team has substantial combined experience which should reassure prospective investors.

Style

This fund takes a top-down approach, making use of business cycle analysis to weight the fund towards their favoured stocks which demonstrate the right style characteristics. Their stock selection process focuses on growth and valuations. The managers claim to control risk tightly by the consistent application of this process.

Charges

The fund has a 5.00% initial charge and a 1.5% annual management charge, with a total expense ratio (TER) of 1.65%.

Conclusion

Europe is an incredibly diverse investment arena, particularly in the current economic environment, with some of more established economies having to support the weaker nations within a single currency infrastructure. The use of an actively managed fund with discretion about country allocation is vital when it comes to investing in Europe. Cazenove European is one of the strongest and most consistent performers in this sometimes difficult investment sector.

Martin Bamford is site editor of BrilliantWithMoney and a Chartered Financial Planner at Informed Choice.

The small but important print: This article was produced for information only and should not be considered a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment fund. Seek advice from a professional independent financial adviser before making a decision. The performance data in this article was provided by Financial Express and was correct as at 28th September 2009.

Each ‘focus on’ examines the objective of the fund, an analysis of recent performance, the manager, charges and other factors.

Within this ‘focus on’ we take a closer look at the Artemis Income fund. This fund sits within the UK Equities asset class.

Fund objective

This fund aims to achieve a rising income combined with capital growth by investing in equities, mainly in the United Kingdom. The portfolio of investments is actively managed and includes exposure to ordinary company shares, preference shares, convertibles and fixed interest securities.

The fund managers are not restricted in respect of choice of investments either by company size or industry, or in terms of the geographical split of the portfolio.

Track record

This is a second quartile fund over one year and a first quartile fund over three and five years. For the year to date it has returned -4.19% compared to a sector average return of -6.01%. This places it 52nd out of 144 funds in the sector.

This fund has a strong and consistent long-term performance record, with above average performance in every discrete annual period since 2004, with the exception of 05/06 when it delivered third quartile returns.

The managers

This fund is managed by ‘Adrian & Adrian’ – Adrian Gosden and Adrian Frost.

Gosden has managed the fund for nearly six years after joining the Artemis equity team in 2003. He graduated with a first from Oxford before working with Andersen Consulting as a strategic consultant specialising in the telecoms sector. In addition to this fund, he also helps Adrian Frost run the High Income Fund.

Adrian Frost has been running the fund for over seven years. He is a Cambridge graduate (the week after the boat race must be interesting in that office!) and was previously Head of UK Equities at Deutsche Asset Management.

Style

This is a fund where the managers focus more on the individual companies and less on the themes that are driving the market. The managers look for companies with a strong cash flow and solid balance sheets.

As an Artemis fund, it follows the Artemis investment philosophy of ‘growth at a reasonable price’, looking for stocks that are cheap compared to their growth rate. Yield is a key factor in the selection of stocks as well as considering how sustainable that yield might be.

Charges

The fund has a 5.25% initial charge and a 1.5% annual management charge, with a total expense ratio (TER) of 1.54%.

Conclusion

This is a strong fund within the UK equities asset class and particularly suited to investors looking for an alternative to the big Invesco Perpetual Income and High Income funds.

It offers consistent performance, active management and a distinct investment style from two solid fund managers.

Martin Bamford is site editor of BrilliantWithMoney and a Chartered Financial Planner at Informed Choice.

The small but important print: This article was produced for information only and should not be considered a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment fund. Seek advice from a professional independent financial adviser before making a decision. The performance data in this article was provided by Financial Express and was correct as at 30th August 2009.

Each ‘focus on’ examines the objective of the fund, an analysis of recent performance, the manager, charges and other factors.

We start by taking a closer look at the M&G Strategic Corporate Bond fund. This fund sits within the UK Corporate Bonds asset class.

Fund objective

This fund aims for an absolute return (the combination of income and capital growth) by investing in mainly investment grade corporate bonds. However, it can also invest in other fixed interest securities, including higher yielding corporate bonds, government debt and convertible and preference stocks. In addition this fund is able to invest in money market instruments and equities.

M&G Strategic Corporate Bond is quite similar to the M&G Corporate Bond fund, but the mandate is less constrained. This means that the manager, Richard Woolnough, is able to invest in overseas bonds and up to 20% of the fund value in higher yielding bonds. When he does invest in overseas corporate bonds, these are hedged to reduce currency risk.

Track record

This is a first quartile fund over one, three and five years. For the year to date it has returned 20.88% compared to a sector average return of 1.74%. This places it first out of 182 funds in the sector.

This is a fund with a very strong and consistent performance track record. More recent figures buck this trend slightly, with third quartile returns and the fund delivering 11.65% against a sector average of 12.56% over the last three months, but in the context of the longer term performance this is easy to ignore.

The manager

The man in charge of this fund is Richard Woolnough. He has been at the helm for five and a half years, since joining M&G in January 2004.

Woolnough became a trainee gilt salesman with Lloyds Merchant Bank after leaving University and subsequently worked as a gilt salesman for Prudential-Bache Securities. He became a fund manager in 1987, with experience in equities as well as Sterling bonds.

He has been described in the past as a ‘flair manager’ with a great deal of confidence backing his investment decisions. Woolnough has a ‘AAA’ Citywire manager rating.

Style

This fund follows a ‘top-down’ investment approach, with the economic outlook of the manager driving the duration of assets within the portfolio as well as decisions on asset classes and sectors. In addition to the ‘top-down’ views of the manager, the in-house credit analysts at M&G supply ‘bottom-up’ analysis of the corporate bond markets.

Charges

This fund offers two different share classes; A and X.

Share Class A has a 3% initial charge and 1% annual management charge (AMC), but no withdrawal fee. Share Class X has nil initial charge, 1.25% AMC and a withdrawal fee.

Retail investors are more likely to select Share Class A, which has a total expense ratio of 1.16%.

Conclusion

This is a consistently top-performing fund with a distinct investment style and capable manager in charge. It will suit investors looking for corporate bond exposure within their portfolio during volatile and uncertain economic times when the ability for the manager to change weightings at the drop of a hat is desirable.

Martin Bamford is site editor of BrilliantWithMoney and a Chartered Financial Planner at Informed Choice.

The small but important print: This article was produced for information only and should not be considered a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment fund. Seek advice from a professional independent financial adviser before making a decision. The performance data in this article was provided by Financial Express and was correct as at 8th August 2009.