M&G drops out of Tilney Bestinvest's 'Dog List' as Schroders fund takes top spot
Aberdeen has highest number of funds in list
A reversal of fortune for M&G has seen all five of its funds that were previously in Tilney Bestinvest's Dog List drop out thanks to improved relative returns, while the addition of a large fund took Schroders to the top spot by assets.
The wealth manager's bi-annual Spot the Dog report highlights OEICs and unit trusts that have underperformed their benchmarks for three consecutive years and by more than 5% over a three-year period.
The underperformance threshold has been reduced from 10% previously due to the fact the report analyses commission-free share classes which have lower costs.
M&G has been a veteran of previous dog lists, holding the largest amount from one fund house for four consecutive reports.
In August 2016, M&G had five funds featured in the list which together made up £11.9bn of assets.
These were M&G Recovery, managed by Tom Dobell, Global Dividend, Global Basics, North American Dividend and Global Leaders.
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Bestinvest said: "At the group level, the biggest story is who no longer features in the list. In the last edition, funds managed by Prudential-owned M&G accounted for 60% of total dog assets.
"Encouragingly, not a single M&G fund features in this edition. Fingers crossed the recovery in performance proves sustainable."
Other firms with zero funds featured in the list this time around included Artemis, BMO GAM, First State, Kames Capital and Man GLG.
Instead, Schroders took the top position thanks to the inclusion of its £1.2bn UK Mid 250 fund, although this was the only fund featured by the firm.
The report said: "Veteran manager Andy Brough struggled to keep the fund on a tight leash and was not able to keep up with the broader market. Investors are likely hoping that the fund's tilt to stocks the market considers undervalued is partly to blame - growth stocks have performed better over the last few years."
A spokesperson for Schroders commented: "It is important to note that over a five-year period the Schroder UK Mid Cap 250 fund is up 110.4% and ahead of its benchmark and the sector average which returned 70.1%.
"Underperformance over the last 12 months was due to a large exposure to domestic stocks, which suffered due to the result of the EU referendum, these are now recovering quickly as earnings and dividends come through as expected."
In total, the latest list features 41 funds, compared to 54 a year ago, while total assets in the list have dropped from £18bn to £8.6bn over the same period.
Meanwhile, Fidelity had two funds in the dog list, its £958m American and £101m Japan vehicles, while Columbia Threadneedle also feature twice and Aberdeen's funds appeared four times.
Aberdeen's result marked a fall from six in the previous report thanks to the removal of the Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity, Ethical World Equity, World Equity and World Equity Income, though its UK Equity Income fund was a new addition to the list.
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Looking at individual sectors, Europe had only one dog fund, Aberdeen European Smaller Companies Equity, thanks to the strong sector performance over the past three years. There was also only one fund in the Asia Pacific sector - Newton Oriental - despite uncertainty in the region.
Conversely, the Global sector had 16 funds featured, worth a total of £2.7bn, including Neptune Global Income, Neptune Global Equity, Henderson World Select and GAM International Growth & Value.
"Active managers have to navigate many pitfalls in the Global sector, as well as stock calls and investment styles going in and out of fashion, global managers have to contend with picking the right mix of regions and big swings in currencies," Bestinvest noted.
However, the report singled out Fundsmith Equity, Old Mutual Global Equity and Newton Global Income as Global funds which were performing well.
About the author
Laura Dew is deputy news editor at Investment Week. She joined IW in September 2013 from Financial Planner, the official magazine for the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP). She regularly writes about areas such as emerging and frontier markets, property, financial regulation and UK equities.
Laura is also responsible for the wealth management and platform beats.
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