Lindsell Train funds defy best buy list removal

The Lindsell Train UK Equity and the Lindsell Train Global Equity funds were both among the most popular Isa funds with Hargreaves investors in August, despite the fact they were removed from the platform's Wealth 50 list due to potential conflicts of interest at the end of July.

The fund manager’s £7.3bn UK Equity fund was the best performing fund of the 259 in the UK All Companies sector over the past year, achieving 15.9 per cent growth compared to an average of 0.8 per cent.

Similarly the Global Equity fund, which is £9bn in size, had a performance of 18 per cent over the past year — compared with a 7 per cent average — meaning the fund placed eighth out of 321 funds within the IA Global sector.

The funds were removed from Hargeaves’ best buy list after the platform decided the funds’ holdings of Hargreaves Lansdown stock had ticked up to levels “unacceptable” to its internal governance.

Nick Train, one of the funds’ managers, denied any conflict of interest and argued he could not conceive how Lindsell Train’s investment in Hargreaves could influence the platform’s investment experts recommendations over the Lindsell Train funds.

Hargreaves Lansdown is the seventh largest holding in the Lindsell Train UK Equity fund, meaning the fund manager has a £505m investment in the broker platform.

The biggest fund in the UK market, Fundsmith Equity, also appeared in the top 10 most popular funds.

The fund, which is managed by Terry Smith, has £16.6bn funds under management and its top holdings are PayPal Holdings, Microsoft Corp and Waters Corp.

The top 10 most popular funds in alphabetical order:

imogen.tew@ft.com