C. Hoare CIO: Why we are backing Europe in 2013

Private bank and wealth manager C. Hoare & Co has shifted its asset allocation focus from the US to Europe for 2013 ahead of an expected boost for the single currency.

David Cavaye, the bank’s chief investment officer, said the group had been fairly heavily invested in US equities in 2012, but will now increase its exposure to Europe. The group’s head of research Robert Jeffree recently sold down BlackRock’s European manager Alister Hibbert in favour of Cazenove’s Chris Rice. “We had zero in Europe early last year, but now we have an overweight to the benchmark. We will wait to see if Spain gets a bailout before we add more. We have done so well out of the US that we think it is now fair value,” said Cavaye. “If we are going to play Europe a bit ...