The study looked at 15 equity, fixed interest and property-focused sectors in total: UK All Companies, UK Equity Income, UK Smaller Companies, Europe ex UK, North America, Japan, Asia Pacific ex Japan, Global, Active Managed, Balanced Managed, Cautious Managed, Sterling Corporate Bond, Sterling Strategic Bond, Global Bonds and Property.
Schroders has at least one top-10 performing fund over a three or five year period in 10 of these sectors, spanning the equity, fixed-income and property space. Of these 10 sectors, Schroders has a top-performing fund over both three- and five-year periods in eight.
The asset management group has only failed to produce a top-10 performing fund over three or five years in UK All Companies, Sterling Strategic Bond and the three Managed sectors.
Sectors with a Schroders fund in their top-10
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Schroders has been particularly strong in the fixed interest space. It has three funds in Global Bonds' top-10 over three- and five-year periods, and three top-10 performers in the Corporate Bond sector over a three year period.
Its record in domestic and international equity sectors has also been strong, and the group has a sector-leading fund in the IMA Property sector.
The only other groups to have a top-performing fund over a three- or five-year period in more than five of these 15 sectors are Henderson, which has particularly strong performance in the managed sectors, and Threadneedle.
Commenting on the results, Robin Stoakley (pictured right), managing director of intermediary business at Schroders, said: "Unlike other firms, we don’t see ourselves as a specialist in a single area."
"As one of the larger asset management groups, our strength in depth has enabled us to have a large fixed income, equity and alternative investment team."
"We also have a large geographical spread. We have an office in every major continent, and a fundamental research team which reports solely to the fund manager."
Stoakley said the fact Schroders is purely an asset management firm gives it an advantage over many of its rivals, which have responsibilities in other areas as well.
"If we don’t deliver on the asset management side, we don’t deliver full-stop. There’s nothing to distract us from this side of the business," he said.
"There is also a culture at Schroders that encourages managers to stay far longer than the majority of management groups. The average fund manager has been at Schroders for eight years, and our staff turnover figure is 5 per cent, compared to 12 per cent from the industry average."
"Maintaining close and long-standing relationships with both colleagues and clients is key to delivering consistent performance in our opinion," he added.
Though the group is strong across the board, Stoakley acknowledged that Schroders’ only weakness has been in the Active, Balanced and Cautious sectors.
"You are right to identify this weakness and we’ve taken action in the last year to turn around performance in these managed sectors," he said.
"We’ve merged the multi-manager and multi-asset teams and recruited a new team to improve the industrial strength of our asset allocation process."
"Performance has improved since these changes were put in place, and we hope to extend this into the longer-term."