MultiManager Growth Fund

Key points

• A multi-asset fund holding equities, bonds and cash with the additional option of investing in private equity, structured products and property
• Award-winning performance, winning Lipper and Moneywise “Best in Sector”, Global Growth Awards 2005
• A multi-manager fund adopting a high conviction ap­proach with a high performance objective
• Investment management responsibility for the fund has been with John Husselbee of North Investment Partners since July 2004
• Sector: IMA Global Growth

Current views

December saw eurozone leaders attend yet another emergency summit on the European sovereign-debt crisis. Despite repeated disappointments following previous summits, markets yet again gave politicians the benefit of the doubt, with risk assets moving higher in the lead up to the meeting. Somewhat predictably, it turned out to be another case of ‘buy the rumour’, ‘sell the fact’. Although the latest plan included a commitment by 26 EU nations (the UK opted out) toward a greater fiscal unity, once again limited detail was provided on how the mechanics would work in practice.

Following the initial disappointment that greeted the results of the EU Summit, equity markets gradually moved higher towards month end, albeit on very thin volumes. While the UK, US and European markets all posted positive gains, emerging markets continued to lag.

Gilt yields continued to fall as the bond market remained on ‘red alert’ over the events unfolding in the Eurozone. Improved US economic data has not been enough to stop safe-haven buying in gilts, bunds and treasuries. Credit enjoyed a good month, with high yield the strongest performer.

The encouraging positive US economic data alongside increased optimism over a possible solution to the eurozone crisis has seen equities bounce back in the last six weeks of the year. The rally was led by western developed markets, in particular the US. Conversely, equity markets in Japan and the emerging nations were somewhat left behind. This has had a short-term impact on relative fund performance as we remained slightly overweight to these regions.

While a commitment to a greater fiscal union has been agreed in principal and action has been taken to unfreeze European credit markets, we remain concerned that the risks in Europe lie to the downside. We are happy to take equity risk in good quality, cash generating companies and also in deep value situations such as those found in Japan and parts of Asia. Conversely, we have and are looking to trim exposure to parts of the equity market which have become fully valued. Over the month, net exposure to equities was scaled back slightly.

We enter 2012 with a fairly cautious tone. The hurdles facing the global economy should not be underestimated and with many asset prices appearing fully valued, the risks appear to lie to the downside. The good news is that there are pockets of genuine value. We have positioned the fund in order to benefit from a re-rating in these assets, while at the same time also exploring alternative investments to provide the fund with much needed diversification in the current environment.

Asset allocation