Nominees for Morningstar UK Fund Awards

Introducing our new qualitative UK Manager of the Year award, plus short lists for all of our 2010 quantitative awards.

Jackie Beard, FSI, 14 February, 2010 | 6:46PM
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Inaugural Morningstar UK Manager of the Year Award
As we revealed last week, we are introducing our inaugural Qualitative Pan-Europe Manager of the Year Awards - a suite of awards driven purely by the insights of our fund analyst team.

As well as these prestigious

ategoryid=13">Pan-Europe awards, we want to recognise the skills in our domestic market. So this year we are also issuing our UK Equity Fund Manager of the Year award.

This is the first qualitative award issued by Morningstar since its launch of qualitative fund research in the UK in February 2009 and draws upon the expert qualitative analysis of Morningstar's UK fund research team. It will recognise one leading UK equity fund manager for his or her excellent stewardship of fund shareholder capital over the long term and for their strong investor offering as measured broadly by Morningstar's Qualitative Rating - a five-pillar methodology for evaluating investment funds.

Our team of analysts nominated managers for this award and we debated the merits of each long and hard, to produce a shortlist of just three, who are:

  • Richard Buxton, Schroder UK Alpha Plus
  • Tom Dobell, M&G Recovery
  • Alastair Mundy, Investec UK Special Situations
The shortlist challenge was not just to focus on returns in 2009 - although this plays a notable part - but also to look back over the investing career of these managers and see how they have performed for their investors over the long term. Even more important were the forward-looking views of our analyst team, who examined issues such as the quality of the parent organisation, the process used by the manager, the research resources backing the fund, and costs.

The shortlisted nominees in this first Morningstar UK Equity Fund Manager of the Year award have each delivered exceptional returns to their investors over the long term and in 2009. None is afraid to differ markedly from his peers in the quest for strong gains, and each brings a wealth of investing experience and a proven ability to serve investors well through changing market environments.

Alastair Mundy
Investec UK Special Situations
Alastair Mundy of Investec UK Special Situations is a true contrarian and he and his team are highly skilled at avoiding value-traps, a common pitfall for such investors. He is prepared to stand away from the pack and wait patiently for his stocks to deliver, even if it takes months or even years for the market to come round to his view. Click here to read the latest rating report for this fund.

Tom Dobell
M&G Recovery
The patience shown by Mundy is a trait shared by Tom Dobell at M&G Recovery. Dobell works hard with company management to turn a business around and becomes a key adviser to those firms in which he invests. This can take years but he refuses to trade in and out of positions for short-term gains - his focus is resolutely on the long term. Read this fund's report here.

Richard Buxton
Schroder UK Alpha Plus
Richard Buxton also goes against the grain, but is a different type of investor from Dobell and Mundy. The macro picture plays a far more prominent role in his Schroder UK Alpha Plus fund, than in Mundy or Dobell's funds. But this fund is not for the faint-hearted, as 2008 showed, when he lost more than 36% of his investors' money and had a fourth-quartile finish to the year. However, he more than made up for this in 2009 with gains exceeding 50% - some 21% ahead of the Morningstar UK Large-Cap Blend Equity category average. The latest report can be read here.

The winners will be announced on 4 March.

2010 Morningstar Quantitative Award Short Lists
We will also be announcing the winners of 15 quantitative awards that recognise funds and fund groups that have delivered the greatest outperformance, on a risk-adjusted basis, in 2009 and over the longer term. While the performance assessment is biased towards funds’ ability to deliver in 2009, these awards place significant stress on limiting downside risk and delivering strong returns relative to appropriate peer groups over the three- and five-year periods. Winning is no easy task, especially in a year like 2009, where many of the top-performing funds were those that have courted the most risk and thus endured large losses in prior years. The funds short-listed here are truly an impressive group.

For the Fund House Awards (the first five awards listed below) we examine the risk-adjusted performance of each house's eligible funds over a five-year period, penalising funds for down-side risk and rewarding them for more consistent results. You can see the full methodology here.

Fund groups represented in the shortlist are:

Aberdeen; Baring; BlackRock; BDT Invest; BNY Mellon; Cazenove; Capital International; Dimensional; Ecclesiastical; Fidelity; First State; Franklin Templeton; Investec; iShares; JOHCM; Jupiter; Majedie; Marlborough; Margetts: M&G; MFS; Neptune; Rensburg; Robeco:; Schroder; SWIP; Value Partners; Vanguard; and Veritas.

The full short-list for each awards category is below. Winners of these awards will also be announced on 4 March.

2010 Morningstar UK Quantitative Award Nominees
Award Name Short List
Best Larger Equity House Award 2010 Fidelity International Ltd
iShares Plc
Schroder Investment Management
Best Specialist Equity House Award 2010 Cazenove Capital Management
First State Investments Ltd
Neptune Investment Management
Best Larger Fixed Interest House Award 2010 BNY Mellon Asset Management
Schroder Investment Management Ltd
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership
Best Specialist Fixed Interest House Award 2010 iShares Plc
M&G Investments
Vanguard Investments UK, Ltd
Best MultiAsset House Award 2010 Fidelity International Ltd
M&G Investments
Vanguard Investments UK, Ltd
Best UK Large-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010 BlackRock UK Income A Inc
Cazenove UK Opportunities A Inc
Majedie Asset UK Equity A
Best UK Mid-Cap/All-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010 Cazenove UK Dynamic B
JOHCM UK Growth GBP
Rensburg UK Mid Cap Growth
Best UK Small-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010 Cazenove UK Smaller Companies A Inc
Investec UK Smaller Companies A Inc Net
Marlborough Special Situations
Best Asia Pacific Equity Fund Award 2010 BDT Invest Oriental Focus A USD
Value Partners High-Dividend Stocks
Veritas Asian A GBP
Best Emerging Markets Equity Fund Award 2010 Aberdeen Emerging Markets A
Baring Glbl Emerg Markets
Dimensional Emerging Mkts Core Eq Acc
Best Europe ex-UK
Large-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010
BlackRock Continental European A Acc
Cazenove European A
MFS Meridian Cont Euro Eq A2 GBP
Best Europe Large-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010 BGF European A2 USD
Franklin European Growth A Acc €
MFS Meridian Europ Value A1 EUR
Best Global Large-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010 Ecclesiastical Amity International A
Margetts Venture Strategy
Veritas Glbl Focus A GBP
Best US Large-Cap Equity Fund Award 2010 CIF US Growth and Income B
Jupiter North American Income Acc
Robeco US Premium Equities D USD
Best Sterling Corporate Bond Fund Award 2010 M&G Corporate Bond A Acc
M&G Strategic Corporate Bond A Acc
Schroder Corporate Bond Inc

The information contained within is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not intended nor should it be considered an invitation or inducement to buy or sell a security or securities noted within nor should it be viewed as a communication intended to persuade or incite you to buy or sell security or securities noted within. Any commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should not be considered a personalised recommendation. The information contained within should not be a person's sole basis for making an investment decision. Please contact your financial professional before making an investment decision.

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