River & Mercantile, Stewart Investors and Unicorn are the most outperforming fund groups, according to independent research firm FundCalibre. 
In its annual Fund Management Equity Index, the group found that 57 of the qualifying 77 asset management houses were able to outperform on average over the period.
The index looks at all actively-managed equity funds recognised by the Investment Association and compares them with their sector averages over a five-year period. Each group's funds are then collected together to calculate the group's average fund performance.
Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre, said: “At a time when cheap passive funds seem to be getting all the focus, I think it is really important to highlight that a good actively-managed fund can really add value for investors.
“Our index analyses the five-year performance of equity fund providers and the results show that, if you do your research, you can find some very good actively-managed funds that repeatedly do well for their investors.
“Consistently good active management is not a myth. Six groups have been in our top 10 in the past three years, each in turn demonstrating outperformance over rolling five-year periods. This suggests a high degree of skill among their fund management teams.”
Top 10 fund houses by average 5-year outperformance
Source: FundCalibre
As the above shows, some fund groups delivered outperformance across all, or the majority of, their funds, with all funds in the top two fund groups outperforming their peers.
In the accompanying research document, FundCalibre said: “Consistently good active management is not a myth – nine out of last year's top ten groups retained their Elite Provider status this year, and six groups have held top ten places in the index in each of the past three years.”
However some fund groups saw a lower percentage of their total funds outperform but were boosted by particularly strong performance from a few of their funds, for example Man GLG with its Continental European Growth fund and Old Mutual Global Investors with its UK Dynamic Equity fund.
As the study shows, fund managers are far from equal and choosing the right fund group can make a huge difference to your returns.
The top group for example – River & Mercantile – which saw all of its five qualifying funds outperform their peers over five years, had an average outperformance that was 68 per cent higher than the average fund's results from the bottom group – Carmignac.
Indeed, all the R&M funds are in the top quartile of their respective sectors over the past five years, with R&M UK Equity Smaller Companies the best performer in the IA UK Smaller Companies sector.
Performance of fund vs sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
The £724m fund run by FE Alpha Manager Philip Rodrigs has returned 185.55 per cent – 90.46 percentage points ahead of the sector average.
FundCalibre noted: “River and Mercantile leaf-frogged into first place this year having been fifth in the 2016 index. It is a small boutique asset manager that mainly focuses on UK equities. Their two 'Recovery' funds had particularly strong years, as their value style came back into favour.”
Indeed, the UK Equity Long Term Recovery and R&M World Recovery funds were both in the top quartile of their respective sectors last year, beating the peer groups by 17.27 and 9.61 percentage points respectively.
The next best performing management house was Stewart Investors, which on average outperformed peers by 33.14 per cent.
The firm, which has $14.9bn in assets under management, saw all 10 of its funds outperform their peers over five years.
FundCalibre said: “Asia and emerging markets specialists Stewart Investors have had another good year, holding second position and improving their average outperformance by 5 per cent.”
Its best performing fund was the five crown-rated Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Sustainability fund run by Sashi Reddy and FE Alpha Manager David Gait.
Performance of fund vs sector over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
The £396m fund has been the best performing fund in the IA Asia Pacific ex Japan sector over five years, returning 106.94 per cent to investors.
Last year’s winner, small-cap specialist Unicorn, remains in the top three but is pushed down to third having topped the index in 2016 and 2015.
“The past 12 months have still been good for the company and it has maintained an impressively high level of performance across their funds,” FundCalibre said.
Outside of the top 10, JO Hambro (13th), Rathbone (19th), Premier (20th), Waverton (21st), Alliance Trust (27th) and Davy (29th) all saw 100 per cent of their funds outperform over five years.
Meanwhile, a number of larger groups caught the eye as 11 of the top 20 companies ran more than 10 funds and nine of these companies had more than 70 per cent of their equity funds outperforming.
FundCalibre said: “Schroders (14th), for example, has 43 qualifying equity funds, 88 per cent of which have outperformed their peers over five years. Fidelity (16th) has 38 qualifying funds, 74 per cent of which have outperformed over the same period.”