Fidelity Global Special Situations
"This is the fund that immediately comes to mind," said Lowcock. "Assets under management (AUM) have fallen considerably, and it seems to me the size is headed in only one direction."
According to FE Analytics, the AUM of Jorma Korhonen’s fund has fallen from a peak of £2.02bn in May 2010 to less than £1.3bn today.
Investment outflows have been the biggest contributor to this reduction in size, though performance has also had an effect. Our data shows that the fund has lost 10.9 per cent in the last year, underperforming its IMA Global sector and MSCI World benchmark by 6.87 and 10.84 per cent respectively.
Performance of fund vs sector and benchmark over 1-yr
Source: FE Analytics
The fund has also significantly underperformed its benchmark over a five-year period, with losses of 9.32 per cent.
Fidelity Special Situations
"This fund’s fall from grace is not on the same level as Fidelity Global Special Situations’, but it’s lost more money in the last year than the total AUM of most funds," added Lowcock.
Sanjeev’s Shah fund has shed £418m in the last 12 months, excluding the impact of performance. These outflows accounted for 14 per cent of the fund’s assets under management (AUM) in October 2010.
While it is still a heavyweight, with £2.7bn AUM, Lowcock says Anthony Bolton’s departure will continue to impact the size of the fund, unless Shah can turn around his recent underperformance.
Performance of fund vs sector and benchmark since Shah took over
Source: FE Analytics
According to FE Trustnet data, the fund has lost 1.97 per cent since Shah took over in January 2008, marginally underperforming its FTSE All Share benchmark.
Jupiter Financial Opportunities
As a percentage of AUM, the Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund has experienced the biggest outflows. According to our data, it had more than £1bn AUM in October 2010; now it has little more than £600m.
The poor performance of financials, and particularly banks, during and after the 2008 crisis has undoubtedly contributed to the £355m outflows; however, a change of manager and poor performance have also played a big part.
Under the management of Philip Gibbs, the fund consistently and substantially outperformed its FTSE Financial benchmark in the early 2000s. Recently, however, it has struggled somewhat. According to our data, the fund has lost 7.93 per cent in the last three years, underperforming its FTSE Financials benchmark by 29.97 per cent.
Guy de Blonay took over as lead manager of the fund at the beginning of 2011.
Threadneedle Asia
Vanessa Donegan’s £690m fund has lost more than £500m of its AUM in the last year. According to our data, £389m of this figure came from investment outflows.
It has underperformed its MSCI Asia Pacific ex Japan over three-, five- and 10-year periods. It seems investors have finally lost patience with the fund, instead opting for the likes of First State Asia Pacific Leaders, which has attracted more than £888m in the last 12 months.