Fund Awards 2008
WINNER
Portfolio Adviser fund AwArds 2008 CAtegory winner
SG Japan Core Alpha Fund
Launched in 1999, the SG
Japan Core Alpha Fund is
under the management of
Stephen Harker and Neil
Edwards.
Since its inception, the fund
has retained its emphasis on
maintaining a large-cap bias
as well being underweight
commodity and economic
cyclicals.
Its managers explain: “The
fund’s commitment to largecaps
will always remain, while
the lack of cyclical exposure
will remain for as long as it
takes for excess valuations to
correct. It is our view that a
financial bubble is well under
way in these areas.”
Harker and Edwards remain
overweight very large-cap
value though they have gradually
moved their exposure
throughout 2008 from megacap
to large-cap by raising
sg Japan Core Alpha vs index
%
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10
Jul ’05 Jan ’06
Source: Morningstar
fund facts
Japan equities
Jul
Annual discrete performance
%
40
30
20
10
-10
-20
SG Japan Core Alpha
Source: Morningstar
0
exposure to stocks in the midcap
value end of the market.
SG Japan Core Alpha
M’star UK Equity Japan
Fund name: SG Japan Core Alpha Managers: Stephen J Harker, Neil Edwards
Launch date: 29 Nov ’99 Fund size: £451.21m Initial charge: 5%
Annual charge: 1.5% Min initial investment: £1,000 M’star rating: HHHHH
Quartile performance: 1 Jul ’05 – 1 Jul ’08
1st q’tile
2nd q’tile
3rd q’tile
4th q’tile
Jan ’07
Q3
’05
Jul
Q4
’05
Source: Morningstar
Q1
’06
Jan ’08
Q2
’06
Q3
’06
Jul
December 2008 [www.portfolio-adviser.com] Portfolio ADViSer SUPPlemeNt
Q4
’06
Year ending Jun ’06
Year ending Jun ’07
Year ending Jun ’08
Q1
’07
M’star UK Equity Japan
Q2
’07
Q3
’07
Globally, the managers are
also more bullish about the
robustness of some of the
banks, with Mitsubishi UFJ
Financial Group, for example,
outperforming.
“We remain of the opinion
that their conservative nature
leaves them well placed in
this difficult environment,”
they say.
“We believe that the
Japanese economy has normalized
and a lot of the problems
encountered 15 years
ago have been driven out of
the system.
“The Japanese corporate
sector is in great shape
and the global credit crunch
affecting major western
economies is much less of a
problem for the Japanese
financial markets.”
Q4
’07
Q1
’08
Q2
’08
Société Générale’s Richard Phillips
“
This is an extremely
impressive team who
have, since restructuring
the portfolio, strongly
outperformed the
Japanese market
establishing the fund as
a core holding for many
fund selectors
”
Andy McGuigan, PA Fund
Awards judge
13
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