The fund performed strongly in 2013; one of the key elements of this growth was the manager’s contrarian approach. The fund invested in some of the peripheral economies including Italian banks.
Since Draghi’s ‘do whatever it takes’ speech in 2012 the markets have become less worried about the collapse of the Euro and peripheral economies. There is a greater confidence around political stability in Europe.
However, investors continue to be wary of Europe which is reflected in negative inflows over the last five years. Towards the end of 2013 the outflows reduced and although still negative in aggregate it continues to narrow. As a consequence we are seeing more European fund managers on the road explaining why now is the time to invest.
In this review we will consider the JPM Europe Dynamic (ex-UK) Fund. The fund has a strong track record over the last five years significantly outperforming the benchmark in 2010, 2012 and 2013. The funds mantra is that it is a high conviction contrarian fund, focusing on stock selection rather than having a country or sector bias.