Investment intermediaries, fund managers, industry representatives and journalists gathered at the head offices of the Financial Times in London at the end of October for the fifth annual Investment Adviser 100 Club Awards.
The Club, now well known across the industry, is our yearly selection of the UK’s 100 best funds and fund managers, based on short- and long-term outperformance and a set of strict screening factors.
These rigorous quantitative screens produce our Club members, who then had to contend with a panel of five leading fund selection experts. Our panel assessed these funds and managers against a range of factors to ensure the very best can truly be called the leading active managers in the UK.
That accolade is more prized than ever, given the stresses and strains endured by the active management industry this year. Political risk has made the headlines, but the industry has also had to cope with ongoing price pressure, meagre flows, and choppy markets and toppy valuations across a number of asset classes.
All this means the stakes have never been higher for asset managers. And at a time when firms are looking round for standard-bearers, the members of the 2016 100 Club have shown they have what it takes to deliver for investors in an environment of heightened volatility.
That’s going to become even more important over the next 12 months, particularly with so many investors unsure of where to place their money.
In the pages that follow, we divulge the full list of 2016 winners so you can find everything you need to know about the industry’s leading lights.
We hope you find the Investment Adviser 100 Club results a useful read. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our panel of experts for taking the time to share their insight and expertise.
For the member funds who have produced the goods for their investors, the challenge is to repeat this again in 2017 and beyond. I’m sure they’ll be up to the task.
Five-year actual return figures and figures for total assets are to May 31 2016.
Dan Jones is editor of Investment Adviser