The duos of Jenna Barnard (pictured) and John Pattullo, who run a number of bond portfolios for Henderson, Ben Wallace and Luke Newman, of the Henderson Absolute Return fund, have entered the list along with John Crawford of Henderson Asia Pacific Capital Growth. In all there were 45 managers to achieve the coveted ranking this year, many of them winning the award for the first time. You can see all the managers here.
Matterley’s Henry Dixon, Jupiter’s Cedric de Fonclare and Ecclesiastical’s Sue Round are among the former FE Alpha Managers to regain the title they formerly held.
The FE Alpha Manager rankings look at risk-adjusted returns in both up and down markets, identifying those managers able to guide their investors through different conditions.
Data is examined going back to 2000, with extra weighting given to outperformance over a longer period of time.
“It’s important to remember that this list is entirely quantitative and totally independent, measuring not only performance but consistency, alpha generation, volatility and downside protection over a manager’s entire career,” said Michael Holland, managing director of FE.
“Just because a manager drops off the list this year it doesn’t mean that he or she won’t be an FE Alpha Manager again in the future – as long as the numbers add up.”
“It should be noted that those who have lost their FE Alpha Manager status aren’t necessarily bad managers, and many of them have performed very well on both a relative and absolute basis in recent years,” he added.
“FE Alpha Manager highlights the top 10 per cent of fund managers in the UK, and so the list is highly competitive.”
Pattullo and Barnard have run the Henderson Cautious Managed fund since July 2012 when they joined lead manager Chris Burvill.
The fund has been a top-decile performer in its sector since then, but what has helped the managers stand out is their performance on their bond funds: Henderson Strategic Bond and Henderson Preference & Bond. Barnard joined Pattullo on both portfolios in 2006.
Performance of manager vs peers over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Both run the same portfolios, meaning their track records are identical, and our data shows they have significantly outperformed over one, three and 10 years.
They also run the closed-ended Henderson Diversified Income trust, which FE Trustnet recently covered.
Invesco’s Stephen Anness is another manager to win the accolade for the first time. Anness is often overlooked, with Invesco’s managers living in the shadow of FE Alpha Manager Neil Woodford.
Anness runs the £133m Invesco Perpetual Global Opportunities portfolio, having previously run the UK Aggressive and Pan European Equity Income funds.
Our data shows he has more than doubled the returns of his peer group over one and three years, and is now ahead over five.
Performance of manager vs peers over 3yrs
Source: FE Analytics
The manager has outperformed in two out of four rising markets and three out of three falling ones, having protected his investors successfully in the 2008 and 2011 sell-offs.
Cazenove’s John Warren has also entered the elite list for the first time. Warren, an accountant by training, has helped run FE Alpha Manager Paul Marriage’s Cazenove UK Smaller Companies fund since September 2010, and also co-manages the Cazenove Absolute UK Dynamic fund.
Both funds have five FE Crowns and are top decile in their sector over three years – the smaller companies fund is the top-performer over that time.
Warren will be speaking about his absolute return fund in an interview later on today.
Over the past three years the manager has returned 74.07 per cent to his investors while his peer group average is just 29.46 per cent. He has been more successful in rising markets.
Performance of manager vs peers over 3yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Polar Capital’s John Yakas, who specialises in financials, is also new to the rankings. Yakas runs the Polar Capital Financial Opportunities and Polar Capital Asian Financials funds.
Our data shows the manager has outperformed in all three falling markets he has faced and four out of the seven rising markets.
Majedie’s Chris Reid joins the list for his work on Majedie UK Income and Majedie UK Focus, a growth-orientated portfolio.
The income fund is tilted heavily to the mid cap area of the market that has done so well in recent years, while the UK Focus fund has 51 per cent in the FTSE 100 and has an all cap approach.
Reid has consistently beaten his peer group average, almost tripling its returns over five years, with a similar record in up and down markets.
Performance of manager vs peers over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
In the emerging markets sector a notable addition is Edward Lam. Lam joined Somerset Capital Management from Lloyd George Management in 2007 and became responsible for managing the research process in 2008. He runs the Somerset Emerging Markets Dividend Growth fund, which has done very well in a poor period for its sector.
The fund has managed to return 10.36 per cent on a total return basis over three years while the sector has lost 12.3 per cent.
Performance of fund vs sector and index over 3yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Michael Clements, manager of Franklin European Growth and Franklin European Opportunities, has also made the list, as have Kames’ Ian Buckle, Cazenove’s Marcus Brookes and Marlborough’s Richard Hallett.
FE Trustnet will be looking in more depth at the new managers over the coming weeks with a series of interviews. Later on today we will be speaking to Cazenove’s John Warren and Henderson’s John Bennett.
