This fund is a value strategy looking for good companies at depressed prices. Alastair Mundy is one of the leading managers in this area of investments. Investment cycles go through periods where value is in favour, but this has not been the case for many years. Alastair explained that there are perhaps two reasons for this: – firstly this has been a low interest rate environment which has favoured growth stocks, and secondly we haven’t had the normal boom and bust cycles.
The fund has suffered in this current environment and is down nearly 40% but Alastair explained that some quality is still expensive. In this environment there are very good opportunities, and potentially when good news comes it could benefit these companies. He thinks it is very hard to guess when markets will recover. There is an end, there will be economic growth and at some point, in the future these companies will come back. The question is, which companies will survive.
He remains positive about housebuilders and believes they have the cash to weather the storm. In terms of retailers, Next are mainly an online retailer now and it is likely the stores will change in the future. Marks and Spencers is now about the food side and it is likely the clothes will go online, and Dixons remains a showroom for products. Holdings like Tescos and M&S have held up well in this market…read more