Fidelity Funds - European Growth

This €14.8 billion (£9.9 billion) behemoth of a fund has had a rough year compared with its peer group but its long-term track record remains impressive.

Morningstar Europe Editor 13 May, 2004 | 1:31PM
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After stringing together three successive years with performances in the top 15% of the Europe Mid-Cap category the fund lagged its competitors by eight percentage points in 2003. This may be surprising to some, since Fidelity prefers to compare this fund to blue chip offerings which would paint a much brighter picture. Yet large companies only accounted for 45.5% of assets in the most recent portfolio supplied by Fidelity, which dates from October 2003.

Graham Clapp took over from his famed predecessor Anthony Bolton at the beginning of that year. The basic pillars of the investment process remain unchanged. This is a pure bottom-up, stockpicking offering, with no constraints on country or sector exposure. While it compares its performance against the FTSE World Europe index, w

hich consists of about 480 companies, Mr Clapp and his London-based team of 53 analysts cover a universe of over 1,300 firms. Not least thanks to Fidelity’s considerable influence in the City Mr Clapp manages to conduct around 700 one-on-one company meetings each year.

The selection criteria are also largely the same. Mr Clapp hunts for firms which he believes have undervalued future potential, either in relation to their long-term earnings prospects or ones undergoing restructuring that show strong recovery potential.

In his first year as manager of the fund Mr Clapp saw strong inflows and added 139 new company positions, while maintaining 110 holdings that he inherited from Mr Bolton. This makes for a very diversified portfolio but the top 100 holdings account for about 70-75% of assets.

Mr Clapp is still overweight in medium-sized companies compared with his internal benchmark. During the course of 2003 he reduced the overweight position in defensive sectors such as healthcare and tobacco. He also increased his stake in the media and entertainment industries, a bet he is still making today.

In the summer of last year Mr Clapp significantly augmented his exposure to telecommunications firms, adding to positions in some mobile operators. He also maintains exposure to certain telecom operators in emerging Europe because of their earnings potential which is driven by the rapid rise in penetration rates in that region.

Macroeconomic views do not really play an important role in the management of this fund and Mr Clapp aims to always be fully invested. He still sees plenty of opportunities in the market, being encouraged by the favourable ratio of earnings upgrades versus downgrades and the abating strength of the euro.

While the portfolio structure has seen important changes since Mr Clapp’s takeover of the fund volatility remains relatively low. This is still one of the better funds for investors looking for a broadly diversified, yet actively managed European equity [share] fund. But the rise in assets and the fact that this was not accompanied by a lowering of fees has to be a concern.

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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Securities Mentioned in Article

Security NamePriceChange (%)Morningstar
Rating
Fidelity European Growth A-Dis-EUR19.29 EUR-0.34Rating

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