The Share Centre has added six funds to its Platinum 120 list – a group of collective investments it believes offer potential to retail investors.
Andy Parsons, head of investment research at The Share Centre, explained why these six funds have been added to the Platinum 120 and what they offer investors.
Henderson Global Technology
"The Henderson Global Technology fund, co-managed by Stuart O'Gorman and Ian Warmerdam, looks at the drivers of technology demand and seeks to grow returns from them. The managers seek to identify and invest in companies that have clear growth themes, such as online advertising, connectivity, data growth, paperless payment and ecommerce."
Artemis Global Energy
"The Artemis Global Energy fund is co-managed by John Dodd and Richard Hulf with the aim of identifying those companies engaged in the oil and gas sector, energy generation and transmission that have the potential to generate long term capital growth. Alongside these, they may also invest in companies that seek to develop and exploit new energy technologies. Although the fund was only launched in April 2011, and therefore has a very short performance history, we believe it may be suitable for those investors wishing to seek direct and specific exposure to the continual energy story."
Standard Life Global Smaller Companies
"The Standard Life Global Smaller Companies fund is co-managed by the highly respected and much acclaimed Harry Nimmo and his colleague Alan Rowsell. It was launched in January 2012 to allow the effective strategy and proven investment process Harry has run on the UK Smaller Companies fund to be taken to a wider portfolio of investment opportunities. This fund may be suitable for investors seeking global diversification across regions and market cap, albeit appreciating the added risk and volatility small cap companies generally exhibit."
Jupiter India
"The Jupiter India fund is managed by Avinash Vazirani, who identifies companies from a bottom up perspective, principally based on a Growth at a Reasonable Price measure. However if an opportunity exists, he will be prepared to pay a premium if the earnings growth compensates for this. This fund may be suitable for higher risk investors who can appreciate the economic opportunity this region affords, and who are prepared to be patient."
SWIP UK Flexible Strategy
"The SWIP UK Flexible Strategy fund is managed by the highly talented James Clunie and will often not appear in many searches investors run on absolute style investment approaches as it sits in the 'specialist' sector. This fund's identification of potential short positions is driven initially by SWIP's fundamental research process, which estimates a fair value for a stock. For those investors seeking an investment opportunity which allows the fund manager true flexibility in his investment decisions and with the ability to short a company where concerns arise over valuations and business risks, then this fund may well be suitable.
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Schroder Small Cap Discovery
"The Schroder Small Cap Discovery fund has a predominant focus on smaller sized companies from the Asian region along with selected Emerging Markets. The fund is managed by the highly successful and well respected Matthew Dobbs who also manages the Schroder Asian Alpha Plus and Asia Pacific funds. Unlike many other smaller cap style investment mandates, this fund is managed on a fairly concentrated basis with the total number of holdings currently being around 78.
• Meanwhile, fund manager Neptune has launched four new funds. The most significant is the Russian Special Situations which is managed by William Rice. It is benchmarked against the MSCI Russia 10-40 index.
Neptune is also offering to investors two new income funds – monthly income and global income - and a Frontier Emerging Markets fund. Neptune now has 37 retail funds to 37.