At an awards dinner held at the Dorchester Hotel last night, OBSR, a Morningstar company, revealed investment house M&G has retained its title as Outstanding Investment House for a second year.
Announcing the award, OBSR joint managing director Richard Romer-Lee said: "M&G has a range of funds that are compelling and they have delivered their objectives to the industry year after year - in spite of markets that have been unfavourable to a lot of their strategies."
M&G picked up the award for the first time at the OBSR Honours’ ceremony 2010, and between then and grabbing the award for a second time in 2011, M&G manager Graham French scooped the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year: Global Equity award for M&G Global Basics in spring of this year. Shortly after the event, Romer-Lee applauded M&G for providing French with the environment and support to adopt his approach and the benefits it has brought to investors.
Speaking last night, Romer-Lee once again reiterated that M&G delivers the right environment in which managers can prosper.
All four of the awards are based on OBSR’s qualitative research, in which particular focus and credit are given to those that have achieved consistently outstanding long-term returns which are in line with investor expectations.
From investment house, to investment individuals, OBSR jointly awarded Ian Spreadbury and his team at Fidelity, and the Jupiter Merlin team led be John Chatfeild-Roberts, with the prize for Outstanding Fund Manager Honour.
Romer-Lee commented that these managers and their teams have produced consistently outstanding returns in what is a very difficult environment to operate.
“Ian Spreadbury has a very impressive record over the last 16 years combining protection of capital unprecedented among his peers and yet producing outstanding returns for his investors in a challenging asset class,” Romer-Lee said.
Spreadbury, who has been running Fidelity MoneyBuilder Income for 16 years, explained his approach to investing: "One of the things I try to do is to always keep in mind that generally [investors] want relatively low volatility, income and low correlation to equities. I aim to provide all those things by achieving a good balance between risk and return, without any nasty surprises."
Spreadbury added that his greatest concern in the current investing environment is the bleak outlook for U.K. growth, while another worry is the effect rising input prices are having on profit margins.
Referring to the Jupiter Merlin winners, Romer-Lee noted that the team has worked together for more than 10 years and has built a range of funds from virtually nothing to a franchise which today accounts for over £6 billion of clients’ money. “This huge growth illustrates their success and foothold in the retail fund of funds market,” he said.
The two remaining awards dished out at the Dorchester on Thursday evening were that of Outstanding New Talent, which landed in the hands of L&G manager Richard Hodges who, though not a newcomer to the industry, was celebrated for the "phenomenal return" he has achieved with his L&G Dynamic Bond fund, launched in April 2007 and which has returned 3-years annualised trailing returns of over 15%.
Last but by no means least, the Outstanding Contributor to the Industry honour was awarded to Mark Tyndall, chief executive of Artemis and one of the firm’s founders.
