Revealed: Winners of the Specialist Investment Awards 2020

Best specialist providers and products honoured

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Who were the winners from this year's Specialist Investment Awards? Find out more in the winners gallery now...
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Group Awards: Boutique of the Year (below £1bn AUM)
Winner: Amati Global Investors
The judges said this group has claimed the niche space of UK smaller companies and has done it through a successful flagship fund. 

They said it was nice to see the cross-correlation between private and public market participation. 

They are not afraid to continue to enhance their proposition with greater attention to ESG issues within their small-cap universe – an often overlooked consideration in this part of the market. 

They have also responded with online developments that have enabled them to continue to report and communicate well with investors.
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Group Awards: Boutique of the Year (£1bn-5bn AUM)
Winner: Gresham House 
The judges had a clear winner in this category saying this group has evolved to become a 'business of the future'. 

Its combination of public and private investments across a range of sectors, particularly those in line with ESG principles, is a winning strategy. 

Despite growth in recent times, the firm maintains its entrepreneurial focus and investors really gain a good understanding of the culture and approach of the firm.
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Group Awards: Best Specialist Multi-Asset Group of the Year
Winner: Beaufort Investment
The judges said this winning group offers cost-effective multi-asset funds run by a knowledgeable and experienced team. They give good clear explanations of their investment approach, with a real commitment to deliver good products overlaid with excellent communication to investors.

Highly commended: Vontobel Asset Management
The judges said this firm has a number of strong offerings across asset classes, including a strong fixed income team based in London. They have developed a good range of offerings and strategic partnerships.

They also wanted to note the group’s ESG capabilities and their approach using Vescore in multi-asset portfolio construction.
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Group Awards: Best Specialist Equity Group of the Year
Winner: Impax Asset Management
The judges said given the increased focus on sustainable and ESG investing in 2020, it is hard to look past this group and their eclectic offering as they are trailblazers in this area. 

They said this group has a great range of funds on offer and is clearly focused on the longer-term impact that investing has on our communities.
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Group Awards: Best Specialist Fixed Income Group of the Year
Winner: TwentyFour Asset Management
The judges said this group is a high-quality boutique with scale and a differentiated product set. They have recognised expertise within fixed income markets and an ongoing focus on their areas of strength.
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Group Awards: Best Specialist ETF Provider
Winner: LGIM ETF
The judges noted this group offers a competitive pricing structure and diverse offering. They said they have some really interesting propositions and it is likely the number of offerings will grow from here too as we look to the future. 

The group also provides good access to the management and processes.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Risk Targeted Fund/Fund Range
Winner: Embark Horizon Multi-Asset Funds
The judges said this winner has an interesting asset allocation proposition with multiple solutions. The group has delivered strong performance across the range with positive contributions from both security selection and tactical asset allocation.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Small/Micro-Cap Fund
Winner: FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth Fund
The judges said the manager of this winning fund has proven he is a strong stock picker, delivering very good returns. 

The fund has delivered excellent performance for clients year-to-date, having been able to protect capital in the earlier part of the year, while staging a rapid rebound from March lows. 

The wider team have a lot of expertise in the micro-cap area of the market and the manager has clearly used this to his advantage, while knowledge of the pre-IPO market is helpful too.

Highly commended: TB Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund
The judges said this fund is run by a hugely experienced manager and team with a strong track record. They have a good pipeline of ideas from their VCT background and have built the team well over the past couple of years. 

They provide consistently high alpha in the most competitive of sectors, while the fund remains relatively balanced in terms of assets and is well diversified.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Renewable Energy Fund
Winner: VT Gravis Clean Energy Income Fund
The judges said the fund manager has done a very good job in leveraging off the broader group's expertise in renewable energy investing, running a well-balanced global portfolio which has been managed with skill. 

This process has yielded strong results in recent years in terms of absolute and risk-adjusted performance.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Technology and Telecommunications Fund
Winner: Vontobel Clean Technology Fund
The judges said this fund provides an interesting alternative in the technology space and the focus on environmental credentials is a differentiator in the field. 

Highly commended: Wellington FinTech Fund
The judges said this fund has an interesting focus and the investment approach is fascinating. It has proven to be a consistent performer and has navigated away from the high-profile mishaps in this sector.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Emerging and Frontier Markets Fund
Winner: Aubrey Global Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund
The judges highlighted this winning fund is run by an experienced team with a solid investment process, offering great returns from a broad base of positions. 

The unconstrained nature of their approach, high active share and ESG considerations have all combined to support their growth focus for consistent success.

Highly commended: Matthews China Fund
The judges said the investment process on this fund is backed by in-depth research, which has provided alpha-generating leads. 

They noted the fund is run by an experienced fund manager who has navigated the volatility in the market very well.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Healthcare and Biotech Fund
Winner: Polar Capital Biotechnology Fund
The judges said this fund has a differentiated approach offering clients access to smaller-cap stocks while being mindful of risk too. It boasts strong performance and a long-term track record, while the manager has proven adept at avoiding accidents, which are common in this space.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Infrastructure and Utilities Fund
Winner: LF Miton Global Infrastructure Income Fund
The judges said this fund has generated great risk-adjusted returns. Its focus on renewable energy is attractive and fits current investors’ demands, while it protected well against the Covid-19 sell-off in March. 

They said it offers a good yield, diversified portfolio and nice investment process.

HC: Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust plc (EGL) 
The judges said the returns this strategy has generated are impressive. They highlighted dividend security has been achieved from the advantages of a trust structure, along with the managers' approach to putting the secular thematic of energy transition at the heart of this strategy. 

This has delivered both robust income and lower downside capture.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Real Assets Fund
Winner: Sanlam Real Assets Fund
The judges said this was a differentiated offering in the sector and the focus on sustainability provides the fund with added appeal. They said the idea behind the fund is neat as it offers investors access to longer term structural growth but in a diversified way.
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Funds Awards: Best Short-Duration Bond Fund
Winner: Vontobel Fund TwentyFour Absolute Return Credit Fund
The judges said this fund has offered very strong risk-adjusted returns since inception and managed to control drawdown reasonably well during the indiscriminate sell-off in Q1 2020. 

They said it is managed by a specialist manager with a well-resourced team that has built up a credible level of expertise.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Fixed Income Fund
Winner: Neuberger Berman Corporate Hybrid Bond Fund
The judges said this is a differentiated offering benefiting from economies of scale and an experienced and well-resourced team. In particular, they noted this strategy offers a different risk/return profile to others in this group.

Highly commended: Lord Abbett Multi Sector Income Passport Portfolio
The judges said this consistently strong fund benefits from a strong, well-resourced team who deploy a truly flexible investment approach. They clearly add value by allocation decisions and bottom-up stock selection.
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist High Yield Debt Fund
Winner: Federated Hermes Global High Yield Credit Fund
The judges noted this winning fund is run by a diverse and experienced team. They wanted to highlight the integration of ESG into high yield has not been heard of much until now but Federated Hermes were one of the early adopters and have clearly thought a lot about this in their processes.

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Funds Awards: Best Specialist Technology ETF
Winner: First Trust Cloud Computing UCITS ETF
The judges said the ETF provides good exposure to an exciting subset of technology, noting providing workers with the ability to work from home has become a strong support this year for the cloud computing thematic. 

They said the indexing methodology behind the product is sound, and the fund has tracked its index with low tracking error. 
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Funds Awards: Best Specialist ETF
Winner: EMQQ Emerging Markets and Ecommerce UCITS ETF
The judges said the choice of investment universe for this ETF is interesting and novel. Investors who want to invest long term and hope for higher returns would benefit from investing in this theme. In particular, they noted the principles surrounding the ETF methodology are good.

HC: AMUNDI INDEX EURO AGG CORPORATE SRI - UCITS ETF DR
The judges said this entry is a large ETF in a difficult to track area, offering cheap access to a fast growing segment of interest for asset allocators.
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Investment Week is pleased to announce the winners of the Specialist Investment Awards 2020, which celebrate specialist groups and funds across the industry. 

The awards recognise managers who are true specialists in their chosen field, while highlighting boutique and passive managers providing outstanding and unique propositions to clients. See all the winners in the gallery above.

Factors setting the winners apart include uniqueness of asset class and strategy, consistency of returns, strong management teams, local teams and resources, and providing affordable access for investors to a specialist area of the market.  

This year's entrants had to prove they were providing a particular missing link in a portfolio to maximise portfolio diversification. 

To this end, fund groups were invited to submit their entries to this year's awards, and filled in a detailed questionnaire drilling down into areas including fund/group performance, team processes and culture, product innovation, and how the strategies fit into client portfolios.  

The awards were judged using a combination of quantitative and qualitative criteria by a judging panel of leading fund selectors and researchers (see below).  

This year in particular, the judges gave ESG considerations a high weighting in their deliberations, as well as how strategies have weathered the market fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.    

Click here for more information about this year's awards and click here for the full list of finalists.

Judging panel

Mohsin Bukhari, head of investments, Carrington

Francis Chua, fund manager, LGIM

James de Bunsen, portfolio manager - multi-asset, Janus Henderson

Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios, AJ Bell

Mateusz Kedzierski, senior research analyst, Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research

Alena Kosava, director of equity and alternative research, Tilney Group

Darius McDermott, managing director, Chelsea Financial Services

Alex Moore, head of collectives research, Rathbone Brothers

Richard Philbin, CIO, Wellian Investment Solutions

Ian Rees, deputy head of multi-asset funds and head of research, Premier Miton Investors

Yuta Rubio, head of alternative and multi-asset strategies, Allfunds

Peter Sleep, senior portfolio manager, 7IM

Nathan Sweeney, senior investment manager, Architas

Louis Tambe, fund analyst, FE Investments

Ruli Viljoen, head of manager selection, Morningstar

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