Top 100 Fund Managers

The fund management industry’s top stock market investors revealed in new research report

• Research scrutinised 491 fund manager track records, across their various employers to rank the 100 equity managers with the greatest career success
• Veteran Asia ex Japan investor Angus Tulloch takes top spot ahead of winding down lead management role next summer; small-cap guru Giles Hargreave ranked second and Mark Slater, son of City legend the late Jim Slater takes third place
• UK smaller companies fund managers have a notably strong presence in the report, representing 13% of the managers in Top 100 despite accounting for just 6% of the total universe of career records analysed
• Tilney Bestinvest to publish new Top 100 Fund Managers report this weekend, 5 December, which will be available for free at www.bestinvest.co.uk/top100

Leading investment firm Tilney Bestinvest will this weekend, on 5 December, reveal the fund management industry’s top stock market investors with the publication of the second edition of its ‘Top 100 Fund Managers’ report. The research highlights those equity fund managers, across different sectors, who have delivered exceptional and consistent performance across their entire careers in the sectors where they manage money. The research required managers to have a minimum identifiable career record of five years for inclusion.

Jason Hollands, Managing Director of Tilney Bestinvest, commented: “While retail investors have access to a wide amount of information on specific funds through online investment platforms and fact sheets - with some now including data on historic volatility and measures such as Sharpe Ratio or Active Share – such data is usually limited to the last five years, barely an economic cycle.”

“Moreover, historic fund performance information may be of limited use in assessing whether to select a fund if the manager tasked with responsibility for the fund has recently changed and did not deliver the past results. In an industry with a competitive job market, funds periodically face manager changes. When considering actively managed funds it is vital to consider the long term track record of the individual manager, or team, running the fund today, and once invested to remain aware of any changes in key personnel which might require a reassessment of the fund.”

Tilney Bestinvest has developed its own proprietary database of fund manager career track records. In compiling the Top 100 Fund Manager report, Tilney Bestinvest has scored managers on a number of factors including excess performance over their market benchmarks, consistency of returns to remove those whose long term records may have been favourably distorted by a ‘lucky’ streak, and weighting the analysis based on the length of a manager’s track record as the more data, the more reliable the insights.

Hollands continued: “If you are going to invest with active managers, it is vital to be highly selective as to whom you hand your cash to as the differences in returns can be enormous.”

He points to the popular Investment Association UK All Companies sector, as evidence of this. While the top performing fund over the last five years returned 114%, investors in the least successful fund during the period (which was a strong one for the UK stock market overall), the worst performing fund actually made a loss of -2% on their investment. In tougher times, the choice of manager could mean the difference between steep losses or gains.

“The gulf in returns simply cannot be explained by variations in the costs of different funds and largely reflects the choice of investments made by the fund managers,” added Hollands.

Scores on the doors

In poll position in Tilney Bestinvest’s 2015 ‘Top 100 Fund Managers’ publication is veteran manager Angus Tulloch of Stewart Investors, part of First State Investments. It has recently been announced that Mr. Tulloch is set to step down from his lead fund management responsibilities next summer. He will hand over the reins on his flagship Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders fund to David Gait, who also ranks highly in the report.

The report also calls out the leading veteran fund managers, each of whom has a track record of more than 20 years; managers under 40 years old who are rising stars; and the top performing women fund managers.

The overall top ten ranked managers can be found below. Analysis and biographies of each of the top 25 managers is available within the publication:

Source – www.bestinvest.co.uk/Top100

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Please note that no unauthorised copying of Tilney Bestinvest’s ‘Top 100 Managers’ publication is permitted

The value of investments, and the income derived from them, can go down as well as up and you can get back less than you originally invested.

This press release does not constitute personal advice. If you are in doubt as to the suitability of an investment please contact one of our advisers.

Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Different funds carry varying levels of risk depending on the geographical region and industry sector in which they invest. You should make yourself aware of these specific risks prior to investing. We aim to provide investors with information to help them make their own investment decisions although this should not be construed as advice or an investment recommendation. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment or if you need advice on your specific requirements, we strongly suggest that you consider professional financial advice.

Press contacts:

Jason Hollands
0207 189 9919 / 07768 661382
jason.hollands@tilneybestinvest.co.uk

Gillian Kyle
0203 818 6846 / 07989 650 604
gillian.kyle@tilneybestinvest.co.uk

About Tilney Bestinvest

Tilney Bestinvest is a leading investment and financial planning firm that builds on a heritage of more than 150 years. We look after more than £9 billion of assets on our clients’ behalf and pride ourselves on offering the very highest levels of professional client service with transparent, competitive pricing across our entire range of solutions.

We offer a range of services for clients whether they would like to have their investments managed by us, require the support of a highly qualified adviser, prefer to make their own investment decisions or want to take more than one approach. We also have a nationwide team of expert financial planners to help clients with all aspects of financial planning, including retirement planning.

We have won numerous awards including UK Wealth Manager of the Year, Low-cost SIPP Provider of the Year and Self-select ISA Provider of the Year 2013, as voted by readers of the Financial Times and Investors Chronicle. We are pleased that our greatest source of new business is personal referrals from existing clients.

Headquartered in Mayfair, London, Tilney Bestinvest employs almost 400 staff across our network of offices, giving us full UK coverage, and we combine our award-winning research and expertise to provide a personalised service to clients whatever their investment needs.

The Tilney Bestinvest Group of Companies comprises the firms Bestinvest (Brokers) Ltd (Reg. No. 2830297), Tilney Investment Management (Reg. No. 02010520), Bestinvest (Consultants) Ltd (Reg. No. 1550116) and HW Financial Services Ltd (Reg. No. 02030706) all of which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 6 Chesterfield Gardens, Mayfair, W1J 5BQ.

For further information, please visit: www.tilneybestinvest.co.uk