A small UK equity fund run by a 30-year veteran is topping the IA UK All Companies sector over 2026 so far, through a portfolio that looks markedly different from its peers in sector allocation and market-cap exposure.
Caspar Trenchard’s £24.5m SVS Zeus Dynamic Opportunities fund has returned 15.3% over 2026 to 8 June 2026, ranking first among 207 funds in the IA UK All Companies sector. The FTSE All Share returned 4.6% over the same period while the sector average was 3.7%.
Performance of SVS Zeus Dynamic Opportunities vs sector and index over 2026
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Source: FE Analytics. Total return in sterling between 1 Jan and 8 Jun 2026
Trenchard said overweights in technology, healthcare and resources, both energy and materials, were the main contributors to outperformance. Underweights in banks and domestic cyclicals such as housebuilders also helped in relative terms.
The fund is positioned very differently to the average IA All Companies member. Its average peer has a weighting to financials of 21.7% but SVS Zeus Dynamic Opportunities has just 15.5%.
Telecoms, media and technology stocks carry a 7.9% weighting for the average fund while Zeus allocates 13.2% to technology alone. Healthcare averages 8.8% across the peer group while Zeus runs 14.8% in the space.
At the stock level, several smaller holdings produced outsized returns over the year to date. Advanced radio frequency solutions specialist Filtronic (a top-10 holding), Seraphim Space Investment Trust and custom chip designer EnSilica, all satellite and space-related names, more than doubled year to date while Tungsten West more than trebled after a refinancing and an associated plan to resume production at its Devon-based critical minerals mine.
Trenchard also pointed to aerospace and defence company Rolls-Royce, which has rallied hard in the three years since the fund launched, even if it has been softer this year.
"It would be remiss not to namecheck Rolls-Royce, which was one of the very first stocks we bought at launch in January 2023 and has been the largest holding in the fund throughout the subsequent period,” the manager said.
The stock was up 16% at the end of May but has since slipped; it is currently just ahead of the FTSE 100 with a 6.5% gain.
SVS Zeus Dynamic Opportunities’ 2026 performance builds on a strong early track record. It launched in January 2023 and made 10.3% by the end of the year, then the fund made 13.2% in 2024 and 28.1% in 2025 – all top-decile results.
This means the fund has made an 84.3% total return between launch on 18 January 2023 and now, compared with 31.4% from its average IA UK All Companies peer and 45.7% from the FTSE All Share.
Performance of SVS Zeus Dynamic Opportunities vs sector and index since launch
Source: FE Analytics. Total return in sterling between 18 Jan 2023 and 8 Jun 2026
The portfolio is built using a core and satellite approach. The core, typically around 70% of assets, holds quality growth franchises intended to be owned for five years or more. The satellite, around 30%, pursues shorter-duration positions where quantitative analysis and event triggers identify a mispricing opportunity.
For the core, Trenchard said the emphasis is on "best-of-breed winning franchises where the best investment returns are earned through persistent, strategic ownership over the long term," adding that conviction in a company, its leadership and its strategy is central to selection.
The satellite is driven by different considerations entirely. "The value element is a far less sentimental aspect, with hard quantitative considerations and event triggers driving stock discovery and selection," he said.
“We don't have to 'like' the company but simply see a material, often market-uncorrelated mispricing opportunity."
Trenchard's background spans both buy and sell side, and he said his sell-side experience directly informs how the satellite component operates.
The satellite allocation has run at a moderately higher weighting than 30% since launch, reflecting the “low momentum, moribund” market conditions that have been in play since the fund’s launch. Trenchard said this has been the key performance driver in both absolute and relative terms since the fund’s launch.
SVS Zeus Dynamic Opportunities is multi-cap, investing from FTSE 100 constituents down to AIM-listed stocks. Approximately 58% of the portfolio sits in companies with a market capitalisation below £1bn and the median holding has a market cap of £264m, against a benchmark median of £675m.
Trenchard described his default position on UK equities as optimistic, grounded in what he sees as a fundamentally lowly rated market and a number of "superwinner candidates" within the portfolio.
He acknowledged three significant headwinds: ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, what he characterised as an emerging bubble in AI and large language model narratives, and a "frankly quite depressing UK domestic and political scene”.
However, he is more bullish on the small- and mid-cap (SMID) stocks, arguing that the sector is overdue a sharp repricing in their favour. Smaller, less liquid companies have historically traded at a discount to large-caps.
“We are long overdue a sharp, inverse liquidity premium squeeze within the SMID domain – what has been a relative headwind for us, despite the healthy performance to date, could become a significant turbo charger versus our IA UK All Companies competition,” he finished.