The concentrated nature of the portfolio and high conviction will deliver greater volatility for investors but it has a proven track of outperformance.
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.
One fund which has recently come onto our radar is the Jupiter European Fund. We are always sceptical when a fund is hailed as the best fund in its sector but we also like to understand why the fund might be tagged as such.
What surprised us was the size of the fund and the style of the management of the fund. The two almost don’t match. The fund is large over £2 billion but the manager runs a highly concentrated conviction style portfolio. 55% of the fund is in the top ten holdings. We would expect the manager to struggle in terms of keeping to their style and deliver performance once the fund grows too big (which it appears to be).
The manager seems to have proven that you can keep to the style and outperform and the update provides an insight to his style and why investors might consider this fund.