Neptune Investment Management also had a good haul, winning the Europe excluding UK and North American equity awards. The judges described Rob Burnett, manager of the Neptune European Opportunities fund, as an independent-minded manager prepared to back his own views and able to draw on original research from Neptune’s team.
Trustnet announced winners across a dozen IMA sectors yesterday, including Schroder Income Maximiser in the UK Equity Income category, Fidelity South East Asia as the best Asia ex-Japan fund and Jupiter Financial Opportunities as the leading Specialist fund.
Mike Jones, publishing director at Financial Express, said: "Managers really had to prove their mettle to outperform their peers over the past 12 months, during which we have seen both rapidly rising and falling markets. This year’s winners represent the triumph of excellent stock-picking skills, experience and the ability to keep a level head in a fast moving market."
Trustnet’s awards recognise funds that have generated impressive returns within acceptable risk limits. Only retail funds with a Three Crown Rating and more than £100m in assets were eligible; Financial Express’ Crown Ratings measure funds by alpha, volatility and consistency over three years. From these, only funds delivering top quartile performance during the 12 months to 1 November 2009 were selected, with the aim of creating a shortlist of six funds per sector. Funds in the Absolute Return sector however were shortlisted according to investment performance alone.
Winners and runners up were judged by Adviser Fund Index panellists, a representative group of IFAs. They took past performance into account and also estimated which funds will offer best value going forward.
| Category | Winner | Runner up |
| UK All Companies | M&G Recovery | Schroder UK Alpha Plus |
| UK Equity Income | Schroder Income Maximiser. | JOHCM UK Equity Income |
| Sterling Corporate Bonds | M&G Strategic Corporate Bond | Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond |
| Europe excluding UK | Neptune European Opportunities | BlackRock European Dynamic |
| North America | Neptune US Opportunities | Threadneedle American Select |
| Asia excluding Japan | Fidelity South East Asia | First State Greater China Growth |
| Japan | GLG Japan Core Alpha | Invesco Perpetual Japan |
| Global Emerging Markets | Aberdeen Emerging Markets | First State Global Emerging Markets Leaders |
| Global Growth | Newton Global Higher Income | M&G Global Basics |
| Specialist Sector | Jupiter Financial Opportunities | Blackrock Gold and General |
| Absolute Return | BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha | Standard Life Investments Global Absolute Return Strategies |
| Property | L&G UK Property | Standard Life Investments UK Property |
| Group of the Year | M&G Investments |
Judges
*Funds were judged by members of the Adviser Fund Index (AFI) panel. The AFI is derived from portfolio recommendations provided by investment advice firms. Panellists represent the following firms: AFH Wealth Management, Allenbridge Group, AWD Chase de Vere, Barclays Wealth, Bates Investment Services, Beckett Financial Services, Bestinvest, Bentley Jennison Financial Management, Charles Stanley, Chartwell, Chelsea Financial Services, Williams de Broe, City Asset Management, Dennehy Weller & Co Ltd, Killik & Co, Origen Investment Services, Principal Investment Management, Rowan, Thinc Group and Whitechurch Securities.