Custis aims to profit from largest valuation spreads in two decades

Lazard's Alan Custis is applying four key themes to his UK Alpha fund in order to exploit valuation ...

Lazard's Alan Custis is applying four key themes to his UK Alpha fund in order to exploit valuation spreads not seen in over 20 years. Custis says the spread in returns between the top-quintile and average UK stock are wider than they have been since before 1987, according to Empirical Research Partners Analysis. In the last couple of years, spreads have ballooned across all sectors, says Custis, who seeks alpha through four main sources - dividend sustainability, capital-raising events, overseas earnings and capacity withdrawal. He has tried to avoid companies with falling returns, s...