The T. Rowe Price European ex-UK fund offers investors exposure to a portfolio of approximately 60 European ex-UK stocks. The manager, Dean Tenerelli, began running this fund in 2009, but his track record on the (pan-European) US mutual fund dates back to 2005. He looks for quality companies in terms of balance sheet strength, sustainable profitability and cash flows, high returns on capital and superior management teams, while also maintaining a strong price discipline. The manager benefits from a well-resourced analyst team at T. Rowe Price.
Despite the relatively recent departure of its original manager Chris Rice, we still believe that the Cazenove European Equity ex UK fund is an appealing offering for investors, and it holds a Morningstar OBSR Analyst Rating of Bronze. New manager Steve Cordell has extensive European equity investment experience and the approach of the fund remains unchanged, with the team’s top-down macro views informing portfolio construction in conjunction with thorough fundamental analysis at the stock level. Cordell has also had success applying the same top-down process with his pan-European equity fund.
The Parvest Equity Best Selection Europe ex-UK fund is managed by an eight-person portfolio management team whom we regard highly. Valérie Charrière-Pousse is the named manager on this fund but Andrew King, head of European equities at BNP Paribas, is the architect of the process and hand-picked the management team upon taking charge of the fund in March 2008. The team has not seen a single departure since coming together at that time. A key facet of the philosophy here is the focus on consolidation trends within industries. The team prefers risk to be derived from stock-specific factors, and the managers therefore look to minimise style biases and limit common factor risks.
