Fixed income strategies Aegon High Yield Bond and BlueBay Emerging Market Unconstrained Bond were among the funds to receive the rating, which recognises strategies the FundCalibre research team believes to be the best among their asset class peers.

FundCalibre research director Juliet Schooling Latter noted the £611m Aegon fund’s “excellent” track record in recent years, which has seen it placed among the top quartile of performers in the IA Sterling High Yield sector over one, three, and five years, according to FE Fundinfo data.

Elsewhere, Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust was also commended by Schooling Latter.

She said: “Launched in 2018, this trust invests in Indian companies of all sizes. The trust adopts a stock-picking approach to target scalable businesses with sustainable superior returns on capital. Aided by a huge bank of experienced research analysts, the trust has comfortably been the best performer in its sector since inception.

“We like the trust’s unique approach to stock selection and its ability to go deeper into both the mid and small-cap markets. A highly unconstrained vehicle, we also like its approach to ESG, specifically governance, which can be a critical issue in India.”

See also: Lindsell Train, Invesco and Schroders managers join 2024 FE Alpha Manager list

Fidelity Asian Smaller Companies fund manager Nitin Bajaj was commended by FundCalibre for his clear philosophy and wealth of experience investing in the region.

“This is a genuine stockpicking fund with an emphasis on buying good businesses at prices discounted by the market. The fund has a contrarian ‘value’ bias and high active share. Risk is considered in absolute terms rather than relative to any benchmark or peer group,” Schooling Latter noted.

Comgest Growth America was commended for its “clear process” and “experienced management team”. The $990m strategy has achieved top quartile returns in the IA North America sector over one, three and five years.

Meanwhile, the £257m Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust was also highlighted for its long term performance.

“The trust’s manager, Zehrid Osmani, has proven himself to be an excellent manager of high conviction strategies. The highly-driven research approach has proven to be extremely successful over the longer term across a range of portfolios and we see no reason why this cannot continue on this trust,” Schooling Latter said.

See also: Investors increasingly eyeing alternatives as volatility fears rise

Ninety One Diversified Income, which launched in 2012, is designed to either replace or complement bonds in a portfolio. The majority of the fund is held in fixed income assets, while it also incorporates strategic equity positions.

“We also like the team’s use of future options and swaps to hedge equity, duration and credit risk,” the FundCalibre research director added.

Four funds were also handed the ‘Elite Radar’ badge, which is awarded to strategies that are on the research team’s shortlist and could receive an Elite rating in the future.

The strategies receiving the rating were Artemis Leading Consumer Brands, GQG Partners US Equity, Man GLG Dynamic Income, and Redwheel Biodiversity.

This article was written for our sister title Portfolio Adviser

ESG-focused funds recorded their first ever year of net withdrawals.

On a more positive note, gross annual flows were up on 2022, though they remained below the levels recorded in 2020 and 2021.

Passives dominate inflows

BlackRock attracted the most net new business for the 10^th consecutive year, pulling in £30.1bn gross retail sales and £6.4bn annual net flows.

Legal & General Investment Management also posted a strong year with a 26% rise in gross sales compared with 2022. It attracted £3.1bn net new business.

Fidelity and HSBC, meanwhile, also recorded strong net and gross flows. Between the four firms, 71% of new flows went into passive offerings.

Royal London Asset Management was the top ranked active fund manager for both gross and net sales. While in previous years it has seen the highest inflows into its sustainable funds, in 2023 its best sellers were short dated fixed income and money market funds.

See also: The Lang Cat: Advised platforms suffer record outflows in 2023

M&G and BNY Mellon were new entrants to the top 10 for gross new business after annual sales growth of 90% and 22% respectively.

M&G’s Japan and Emerging Markets Bond funds ranked among the best-selling retail funds over the year, while BNY Mellon’s Multi-Asset Balanced fund also received significant attention from retail investors.

Report editor Anna Pridham said: “Gross sales show that established groups like Schroders, Jupiter, BNY Mellon, and JPM are attracting significant new flows. However, as mature businesses, they also contend with high levels of natural outflows and switches.”

In terms of Q4 flows, most leading managers recorded a rise in gross sales compared to the previous three months.

Pridham noted that, against a backdrop of an impending general election in the UK and ongoing economic uncertainty, the outlook for asset managers in 2024 remains uncertain.

“However, with the prospect of easing inflation and anticipated interest rate cuts, investors may be finally ready to deploy the record amounts of cash waiting in the wings. The fund groups with the right products stand to benefit,” she said.

This article was written for our sister title Portfolio Adviser

Others, however, believe the decision is more nuanced, and say the problem lies in the regulatory design of the FCA’s Consumer Duty and Assessment of Value regulation as opposed to with the platforms themselves.

In July this year – the same month that the Consumer Duty rules first came into force – Fidelity took the decision to restrict investors from buying into certain funds and trusts on its platform which it deemed to be poor value.

The FCA’s 121-page paper on Consumer Duty states that companies “must take proactive and reactive steps to avoid causing harm to customers through their conduct, products, or services… their design, terms and conditions, marketing, [sales] and support”. It added that this should be implemented with a degree of “reasonableness”, meaning the rules and guidance “must be interpreted in line with the standard that could reasonably be expected of a prudent firm”.

The first product that Fidelity shielded new investors from buying into was the RIT Capital Partners investment trust which, at time of writing, is trading on a 24.1% discount to its net asset value. Residing in the IT Flexible Investment sector, the investment company has lost 16.1% during the past 12 months, 3.9% over three years and 1.7% over five years. However, it has gained 71.9% in the past decade. Its listed ongoing charges figure – which is applied to the underlying net asset value of its portfolio – stands at 1.6%.

Since then, there have been a further 14 funds and investment trusts that Fidelity platform clients can no longer access – although a small number of these restrictions come from the investment firms themselves, for example Royal London Global Equity Select’s units are now limited issue.

Funds and trusts which Fidelity has proactively prevented investors from buying into include: MIGO Opportunities Trust, AVI Global Trust, Momentum Multi-Asset Value Trust, CT Global Managed Portfolio Income, LF Odey Opus, LF Brook Continental European, Jupiter Fund of Investment Trusts, four different share classes of VT Argonaut European Alpha, Abrdn Private Equity Opportunities investment trust, Premier Miton Worldwide Opportunities and GVQ Opportunities. It has also prevented clients from buying into any Valu-Trac Epic funds.

In October this year, Interactive Investor decided to follow in Fidelity’s footsteps and prevent investors from buying into certain products they deemed to be poor value, although the firm does not provide a published list of these products. Other platforms that are willing to restrict investments into some funds and trusts include Aviva, Barclays Smart Investor and HSBC.

To read more, visit the December edition of  Portfolio Adviser Magazine

The private bank has hired Anna Zakrzewski as group chief operating officer.

Zakrzewski served over two decades at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as managing director and partner. He will be based in Luxembourg and will work closely with Eli Leenaars, outgoing chief operating officer for Quintet.

Leenaars is retiring after four decades in executive roles for four different banks.

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI)

The professional body has appointed Mandy Gill as its executive director of global learning.

Gill will join the CISI in late November from the Gambling Commission where she was director of industry and specialist knowledge. Prior to that she was director of compliance at Commission from 2018 to 2023.

Gill has experience in vocational education and regulation, working with Ofqual for three years, and professional services. She became a qualified solicitor in 1993 and worked at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Nucleus Financial Platforms

The platform company has hired Andrew Tully as technical services director.

Tully is a pensions expert and industry commentator. He has spent 35 years working in high profile roles, such as technical director at Canada Life and Pensions Technical Director at MGM Advantage.

He will be taking over Neil MacGillivray, who is retiring as head of the technical support unit after a 25-year career with James Hay and Nucleus.

Robeco

The international asset management company has named Nick King as head of its ETF platform.

King previously spent eight years at Fidelity. Before that, he spent nearly nine years at BlackRock where he was promoted to senior portfolio manager in ETFs.

WRISE Group

The multi-family office has hired Helen Lam as group chief operating officer and Gaven Koh as group head of risk and compliance.

Prior to joining WRISE, Lam worked at the Bank of Singapore Hong Kong branch on strategic business operations.

Koh has 12 years of experience in the private banking industry and led a team of analysists at Credit Suisse AG across Asia Pacific.

Atomos

The wealth firm has appointed Jonty Warneken as head of the Harrogate office.

Warneken previously worked at Sanlam for seven years until 2019, when he joined Brooks Macdonald.

Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management (CGWM)

The wealth management firm has recruited David Blake as experienced investment director.

He joins as investment director for Rathbones and has previously held roles at Jupiter Asset Management, Bestinvest and Brooks Macdonald Asset Management.

Fidelity International 

The investment firm has named Talib Sheikh as lead portfolio manager across multi-asset income strategies.

Sheikh brings over 25 years of experience in the investment industry, most recently as head of multi-asset strategies at Jupiter Asset Management.

Sheikh succeeds Eugene Philalithis, who has announced his retirement in 2024.

On the last of these points, he tells IA editorial director Julian Marr: “We have also seen a lot of discipline from emerging markets central banks this cycle so – whereas we are seeing negative real interest rates in a lot of developed countries, including the UK – emerging market central banks have hiked well ahead of the curve.

“Brazil, for example, has interest rates close to 14% and that means, when you do see rates final start to get cut, emerging markets banks can cut a lot – and that will be a real tailwind for the consumer.”

Portfolio positioning and outlook

Tennant goes on to discuss company valuations, how the portfolio is positioned and the key arguments for investors returning to emerging markets – and what may still give them pause for thought.

As for the outlook for the asset class, Tennant says: “China’s post-Covid lockdown re-opening, combined with a gradual improvement in the property sector, is a big driving force for commodity demand. So the outlook for commodities over the next six to 12 months – and even longer – is very positive.

“Where we are more cautious is on developed-market demand and some sectors that are perhaps more exposed there – for example, IT services – is where we would have more of a cautious outlook.”

You can view the whole video by clicking on the picture above, while the timecodes for each question are set out below:

00:24 Is sentiment to emerging markets changing – and, if so, why do you think that is?

02:35 Given that shift in sentiment, how do valuations look?

03:20 What do you see as the biggest arguments for investors returning to emerging markets – and what may still give them pause for thought?

05:02 How is the fund positioned, what are your strongest convictions and what areas are you avoiding?

07:03 Can you highlight any changes you have made to the portfolio recently?

08:25 What is your outlook for the rest of the year?