Portfolio Adviser

ANALYSIS ROUND-UP

Legg Mason fund available in UK Legg Mason Global Asset Management has made its $12bn (£8bn) global fixed income strategy available to UK investors through its Dublin-domiciled LMGF fund range. The Legg Mason Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income Fund is managed by the group’s subsidiary Brandywine Global and will be co-run by David Hoffman and Stephen Smith. It will invest primarily in investment grade sovereign debt, with some exposure to corporate bonds and mortgage-backed securities in both developed and emerging markets.

Pioneer mirrors US product Pioneer Investments has launched a high conviction, unconstrained multi-asset fund for European investors that is currently being run as a US-domiciled proposition. The Pioneer Funds Multi Asset Real Return Fund is a go-anywhere, global fund that is a mirror of an existing fund run by Michele Garau that was launched in May last year. Garau will manage the Luxembourg-based offering as lead manager.

Threadneedle UK Equities offering Threadneedle Investments has launched a UK Equities Fund in its Luxembourgdomiciled Sicav range. According to manager Simon Brazier, the portfolio was seeded with capital from a European client and is expected to grow significantly over the next three months. The fund employs the same conviction-driven process that Brazier has used on the firm’s £1.1bn UK Oeic.

news www.portfolio-adviser.com round-up Too early to write off Asia Pacific despite poor returns

Analysis of funds in the IMA Asia Pacific ex Japan sector shows a long list of negative returns for investors in 2011. The one outlier was Jason Pidcock’s £1.1bn Newton Asian Income Fund, which only just made a positive return for its investors, at 0.27% for the 11 months to 30 Nov. The roll call of managers that have failed to give investors more money than they had on 1 Jan, 2011 includes some of the greats in the industry such as Angus Tulloch, Mark Mobius and the entire Aberdeen emerging markets team.

PA analysis

If you look at any of the market indices and quite a few of the currencies in Asia, they have fallen sharply since the start of 2011, with losses of mid- to high-teens common. On that basis, some funds in the sector have performed rather well. Simon James, founder partner at Gore Browne Investment Management, said: “Rather than saying they have done badly, they have actually done well

Product launches

Bilfinger Berger Sicav IPO hits ambitious target Bilfinger Berger has successfully raised the £200m-plus targeted through an initial public offering for its closedended infrastructure investment company. The Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure Sicav raised £212m in its IPO held on 14 Dec. The fund will target an annual income of 5.5% net of fees that it intends to increase progressively over the long term through returns on a number of infrastructure projects that have already been built and are in operation.

Morgan Stanley Brazilian long/short strategy Morgan Stanley has launched a Brazilian long/short strategy via

James: ‘lessons to be learned about short-termism’

and the ones who have done well are the usual suspects: Newton, First State and Schroders.”

its Dublin-domiciled Ucits platform. The MS Claritas Long Short Market Neutral Ucits Fund will be managed by Claritas Administração de Recursos, a Brazilian asset management firm which has approximately $1.87bn (£1.2bn) AUM.

Neptune soft launches latest Max Alpha fund Neptune has soft-launched a China equity fund run by, among others, the firm’s chief executive Robin Geffen. The firm’s usual process is to softlaunch a fund for around a year before taking it to a wider audience, and it has confirmed the soft launch was on 15 Dec for the Neptune China Max Alpha Fund. Geffen, along with fellow managers Douglas Turnbull (the two also run

Following the Newton Asian Income Fund, next in line is the First State Asia Pacific Leaders Fund, with a loss of 4.5% over the period, followed by the Schroder Asian Income Maximiser down 4.86% for the year. Over three and five years, each of these funds has performed significantly better though, and this is something to be kept in mind. “There is a good lesson to be learned here about not being short-termist,” said James. “Those managers invested in firms with strong balance sheets, good cash flow, stable demand for their products and which are probably paying dividends, are the ones that have done well, and over the long term they have done extremely well.”

the £82m Neptune China Fund) and Adam Kelly will seek out capital growth by investing in a highly concentrated portfolio of 20 to 30 stocks.

SWIP adds to high yield fixed income range As part of an ongoing expansion of its fixed income business, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has launched its latest high yield bond proposition. The unconstrained SWIP European High Yield Fund will carry on the eight-year working relationship of co-managers Steve Logan, head of European high yield, and Lesley O’Neill, investment director for European high yield. It will be a European-centric best ideas fund of around 75 stocks, that also uses

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Since the start of the year, Pidcock’s Newton Asian Income Fund has seen positive inflows from both existing clients and new clients, which suggests investors view it favourably within the sector. He is philosophical about the fund’s performance over the past year: “There are some years where just going sideways and protecting your capital is all you can do. “Given that equity markets globally have been down over that period, I would think that many of our shareholders would be happy with the 0.27% return – and if they have held it for three or five years, they will be even happier,” he concluded. Esther Armstrong For a profile of Simon James, see Wealth Manager on pages 18-19.

the research and ideas generated by SWIP’s high yield team.

GAM to create emerging market fund for new hires GAM has made two senior fund hires to run a longonly emerging market fund as part of its GAM Star fund range. Tim Love has joined as an investment director, while Joaquim Nogueira is the new investment manager. Both are based in London and join from CQS where they managed a long/ short emerging market equity portfolio. Prior to joining CQS in 2009, Love managed long/short emerging market funds at Cazenove Capital, having previously been head of global equity strategy at Deutsche Bank for four years.

6 PORTFOLIO ADVISER [www.portfolio-adviser.com] JANUARY 2012

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