Old Broad Street Research, Morningstar UK's latest acquisition, last night hosted its third annual OBSR Honours for Excellence in Investment Dinner, at which Hugh Young and his team at Aberdeen Asset Management were awarded the Outstanding Fund Manager Honour.
Four honours were awarded in total, with M&G walking away with Outstanding Investment House, AXA's Theodora Zemek winning Outstanding Contributor to the Industry and Jupiter's Cedric de Fonclare being handed the Rising Talent award.
OBSR's annual event honours the crème de la crème. “The managers that reach our short list really are the best of the best," commented OBSR Research Director Richard Romer-Lee. "Fund managers have to exist in a highly pressurised and competitive environment, in constantly changing markets. It is extremely difficult to reach the top."
Romer-Lee described Aberdeen's Hugh Young and team as "one of the pioneers for UK investors investing in Asia and emerging markets, with a consistent and strong team based approach." The team has had to contend with numerous challenges over the years, he added, namely "a rollercoaster ride of political and economic crises; operating from a distant part of the world (although this has stood them in good stead from an investment perspective); as well as the attention placed on the company for which they work."
The awards set out to recognise both the individual fund managers and the fund group that have made a significant contribution to the retail investment field. Romer-Lee explains more about the awards' history and objective:
“Awards – huh – what are they good for? Absolutely nothing? Well, in an industry that boasts more than its fair share of back-slapping, perhaps it can sometimes feel that way but, in the end, any individual set of awards will stand or fall on the real motivation behind them, what they honestly aim to achieve and the strength of the process through which the winners are identified.
"Old Broad Street Research launched the Honours for Excellence in Investment as a way of recognising and rewarding those who achieve the ‘Holy Grail’ of retail fund management. That is, the ability of both individual managers and fund groups consistently to generate outstanding, expectable and long-term returns, within stated risk parameters, while at the same time remaining loyal to their investors.
"The OBSR Honours, a not-for-profit venture, sets out to recognise those outstanding investors and fund groups who have made a significant contribution to the retail investment arena and to our industry’s overriding consideration of helping wealth managers and their clients meet their financial objectives.
"This recognition of excellence in investment is based on the in-depth qualitative research for which OBSR is well-known and which stems from the regular, face-to-face meetings the firm holds with fund managers. While quantitative analysis is involved in the Honours, it is this depth of research and knowledge – accumulated by OBSR over the last two decades – that really counts and should set these awards apart.
"Put simply, the aim of the OBSR Honours for Excellence in Investment is to acknowledge what people strive for in the investment industry and to identify what makes the difference between the very best and the rest. There will be crystal clear reasons why the winners have won and, by the same token, you should expect neither controversy nor surprises – only the recognition of the most exceptional investors in our industry.”
The results of last year's awards can be found on the OBSR web site.
