Richard Skelt oversees the asset allocation for this internal manager of managers fund. Six underlying Fidelity fund managers are responsible for investing the assets around the world.
There is a designated manager in America, Asia, Canada, Europe, Japan and the UK. British investors can access some of these managers through other Fidelity funds while others are only available through this portfolio. For example, Tim McCarron is responsible for the European investments and he also runs the five-star Fidelity European fund. On the other hand Robert Haber, who is based in Boston, runs the American part of the International fund and this is the only way to access his fund management.
As the fund is intended for UK investors the British portion is the largest, making up approximately 45% of the assets. This UK bias is reflected in the fund’s benchmark index which is a combination of 40% FTSE All-Share Index and 60% MSCI World Index.
Over recent years Mr Skelt has had much more input into which managers are responsible for the different sections of the portfolio. Previously the local chief investment officer had assigned the manager who made that region’s investments.
The manager says that in aggregate, under or overweight positions in one region of the portfolio are balanced out by opposite positions in another region. However, at the moment the portfolio has relatively high exposure to the oil sector across the board. It also reflects the fact that consumer sentiment is more upbeat in America and Europe than it is in Britain.
The Fidelity MoneyBuilder Global fund of funds, which Mr Skelt also runs, has a similar investment objective and the same benchmark as the Fidelity International fund. However, it is invested in 12-20 funds versus the International fund’s six managers. This means that Mr Skelt will often have the choice of more than one manager per region. But with the International fund investors will get access to some fund managers that are otherwise inaccessible.
