Standard Life

Small-cap star Harry Nimmo has revealed his investment trust took a hit from the sharp sell-off in online clothes retailer ASOS in the last six months of 2011.

M&G Investments' Alex Odd has entered Bestinvest's infamous list of "dog funds", alongside offerings from Standard Life and SWIP, after his £1.2bn M&G Dividend fund underperformed its benchmark substanitally.

Discussions around what the post-RDR landscape will look like have tended to focus on cost and share classes but what of fund choice in 2013 and beyond? How many funds will remain in existence and how many providers?

M&G tops both retail sales lists as investors seek out bond funds, while BlackRock's active and passive vehicles also prove popular.

Kevin McConnell, manager of Bloxham's outperforming Midas Global Absolute Return fund, has warned many of the UK's absolute return vehicles are too correlated to equity markets.

Invesco Perpetual is bringing a range of multi-asset, risk-rated funds to the UK run by its Atlanta-based global asset allocation team headed by CIO Scott Wolle.

THE BIG QUESTION

Principal Investment Management's latest income study urges investors to switch out of Robin Geffen's £1bn Neptune Income fund, warning its global growth emphasis is likely to disappoint this year.

Xstrata's fourth largest shareholder, Standard Life Investments, said it will vote against the recommended merger between the miner and Glencore because the deal "clearly undervalues" the miner.

Standard Life has successfully sued its professional indemnity insurers for around £100m to recover losses related to its Pension Sterling Fund.