This fund, a sub-fund of the Luxembourg-domiciled JPMorgan Fleming Funds SICAV, was launched in October 2000. The fund, which is run by Jonathan Simon, has behaved much like a value offering. It clearly outperformed its peers in the North America Equity category in both 2001 and 2002 but suffered during last year’s more growth-oriented rally. This year performance improved and the fund is in the top of its category as of December 6th.
The fund’s benchmark is the S&P/Barra 500 Value index and the portfolio holdings also reflect the value bias of the fund. It has significant exposure to the financial services sector and only very small holdings in technology companies.
Investors who are drawn by the good historical performance of this fund should be aware that it has been helped by its value bias. This section of the market has done well following the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000.
The fund sits in the large cap value section of the Morningstar Style Box but has a stated bias towards medium-sized companies. This bias has increased over the last year. In December 2003 the fund had no exposure to smaller companies and about 33% of assets in mid cap companies. According to the latest portfolio submitted to Morningstar the small cap exposure is now some 3% of assets and the mid cap exposure has increased to 37.7%.
This fund falls neatly into the value side of an investment in American shares. The fund is run by an experienced manager and offers investors a diversified portfolio of fundamentally strong and cheap US companies.
