Hanbury and Staveley target weakness in banks

River & Mercantile's UK Equity Unconstrained managers use PVT philosophy to locate companies that can create shareholder value in the medium term

River & Mercantile's UK Equity Unconstrained managers Dan Hanbury and Richard Staveley have just started to buy banks for the first time since the fund launched last year. The managers said their outperformance over the past 12 months was a result of a zero weight in banks but they decided to take advantage of weakness in the area in February. According to Lipper, the fund has returned -8.58% since launch on 22 March 2007 until 21 March 2008 compared to the All-Share's return of -11.46%. The vehicle was the third fund launched by River & Mercantile, set up in 2006 by former Liontrust ...