The UK’s best known fund managers run funds worth billions of pounds and tend to hog the limelight, but less well known fund managers at investment boutiques around the country can offer equally attractive returns.
Arguably, managers at the helm of smaller funds stand a greater chance of outperforming the juggernauts by virtue of being nimble.
Rob Gleeson, Head of Research at FE, has used the FE Analytics fund database to identify five of the best fund managers you’ve probably never heard of; hidden gems that savvy investors should consider including in their portfolios.
Toby Ricketts
Fund of funds expert Toby Ricketts runs six portfolios in total at Birmingham-based fund manager Margetts, a family business with roots in the city’s finance quarter stretching back for more than a century.
Two of Mr Ricketts’ flagship funds – Margetts Select Strategy and Venture Strategy funds – are top quartile across one, three, five and 10 year periods. The outperformance of his funds has seen him climb high above his peer group composite in the past decade, with returns of 164 per cent.
Furthermore, his Margetts Opes Growth and Sentinel Enterprise Portfolio have both been awarded five FE Crowns, marking them out as within the top 15 per cent of its sector in terms of alpha generation, consistent performance and risk control.
Mr Ricketts tends to invest in large, established funds from well-known groups – his Margetts Opes Growth fund includes First State Asia Pacific Leaders – but also invests in less well known fund managers, like industry darlings Troy, managers of the Trojan Income fund.
Many of his funds have a significant emerging markets bias at present; according to FE data, his £70m Margetts Venture Strategy portfolio, which sits in the IMA Flexible Investment sector, has 34 per cent in Asia Pacific and 33 per cent in other emerging markets.
All of Mr Ricketts’ funds require a minimum investment of £1,000 and have a total expense ratio (TER) of between 1.6 per cent and 1.75 per cent.
Mr Ricketts has been an FE Alpha Manager for five consecutive years, indicating that he remains within the top 10 per cent of the UK’s retail fund managers. The FE Alpha Manager Ratings use purely quantitative techniques to identify the best and most consistent fund managers, and are not paid for by asset management groups, so fund managers at even the smallest groups are in with a chance of being rewarded with this accolade.
Victor Wood
Victor Wood is a highly experienced fund manager having spent more than 40 years in the investment industry, but few retail investors would recognise his name. He heads up the McInroy & Wood Balanced and McInroy & Wood Income portfolios, which have roughly £250m assets under management apiece.
Both funds have four FE Crowns and both are top-quartile performers in their IMA Mixed Investment 40-85 per cent Shares sector in three and five years.
In the past decade, the Balanced and Income funds have returned 219 per cent and 196 per cent respectively, compared with 118 per cent from their sector average.
