Stone favours intellectual property over cyclicals

Manager looks for companies with growth potential through development or takeover as consolidation spreads through European industrial sector

Fidelity veteran Colin Stone has been with the group for 21 years and is seeing unprecedented industrial consolidation across Continental Europe. The manager, who joined Fidelity in 1987 as a senior research analyst, used to be an engineer in the oil industry, giving him something of an edge as regards this sector. His £729m European Opportunities fund celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. It has seen a drop in performance over three years, now ranking 81st out of 104 peers in the IMA Europe ex UK sector. The vehicle is returning -13.6% against a sector average of -12.3% over ...