Investec UK Special Situations is among the top-performing 25 per cent UK All Companies funds over one and five years, over which periods it also out performs the FTSE All-Share index. It does not outperform every year or over all periods as the investment approach is not short term, with equities typically held for three to five years to maximise their recovery potential.
The fund aims for income and long-term capital growth via UK equities and derivatives. Its investment team, led by Investec's head of contrarian equities, Alastair Mundy, assesses whether or not a company and its stock appears to be out of favour with the market and is therefore undervalued.
The investment process includes screening companies with a market capitalisation above £100m to highlight the poorest performers, isolating opportunities with attractive characteristics. These are then scrutinised in greater detail to identify investment opportunities. The team look for good underlying fundamental values such as assets, cash flow and profits.
Although they typically choose companies according to their individual attributes rather than sector considerations, they avoid the most popular market sectors on the grounds that these stocks could be overvalued. They believe this leads to lower-risk shares as each new holding will typically have experienced a significant price fall but have valuation factors that suggest the shares are priced at a discount. Stocks must have fallen by at least 50 per cent in the past five years in order to be considered for inclusion in the portfolio.
INVESTEC UK SPECIAL SITUATIONS A Acc Net (GB0031075665) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PRICE: | 740.43p | MEAN RETURN: | 11.32% |
| IMA SECTOR: | UK All Companies | SHARPE RATIO: | 0.76 |
| FUND TYPE: | Open-ended investment company | 1-YEAR PERFORMANCE: | 0.77% |
| FUND SIZE: | £590.66m | 3-YEAR PERFORMANCE: | 44.91% |
| No OF HOLDINGS: | 70 | 5-YEAR PERFORMANCE: | 11.65% |
| SET-UP DATE: | 2 October 1978 | TOTAL EXPENSE RATIO: | 1.60% |
| MANAGER START DATE: | 1 August 2002 | YIELD: | 2.76% |
| TURNOVER: | 1.69%* | MINIMUM INVESTMENT: | £1,000 |
Source: Morningstar & *Investec
Performance data as at 18 June 2012.
Top 10 holdings as at 31 May 2012
| Royal Dutch Shell | 7.8 |
| GlaxoSmithKline | 7.1 |
| HSBC | 6.7 |
| Signet Jewellers | 5.0 |
| Vodafone | 4.3 |
| BP | 3.9 |
| Unilever | 3.6 |
| Travis Perkins | 3.5 |
| Grafton | 3.4 |
| British American Tobacco | 3.3 |
Sector breakdown as at 31 May 2012
| Industrials | 18.4 |
| Healthcare | 13.0 |
| Consumer goods | 12.4 |
| Consumer services | 11.8 |
| Oil & gas | 11.8 |
| Financials | 10.2 |
| Telecommunications | 9.1 |
| Basic materials | 2.6 |
| Technology | 2.3 |
| Utilities | 0.9 |
| Cash | 0.9 |
| Other | 6.6 |
