F&C's retail UK equities funds make their mark

F&C is celebrating a year of eye-popping performance from a number of its key retail UK equities funds, four of which finished the year in the top decile of their respective sectors.

"We are extremely pleased with the progress made in delivering strong UK equities performance to our retail investors," said Jason Hollands, Director, Head of Communications at F&C, "which provides an excellent platform for the long-term performance records we aim to build."

F&C notes that 2006 was a particularly strong year both for long-standing manager Ted Scott (pictured) as well as some of the 'new stars' it hired at the end of 2005.

"2006 was a superb year for Ted with Stewardship Growth, Stewardship Income and F&C UK Growth & Income all closing off the year with stellar top decile rankings. This is great news for our huge base of ethical investors and the results from the F&C UK Growth & Income Fund clearly vindicate our decision to allow Ted to manage an unrestricted fund as well," said Hollands.

"The Stewardship Growth Fund is a large fund and Ted has continued to demonstrate that he can deliver market beating performance at scale. In contrast, at £68 million the F&C UK Growth & Income Fund is a relative minnow, and considerably smaller than some of the best-sellers in the equity income sector. We therefore believe that this fund has earned a place on the radars of IFAs during 2007."

Additionally, F&C points to the results delivered by two newcomers to the retail funds space a year ago: Luke Newman and Makis Kaketsis. Both were part of a team of five fund managers who were recruited from DWS Investments in the Autumn of 2005 in a move designed to transform F&C's UK equity proposition. In a year when interest in special situations funds received record attention following the news that Fidelity was to split Anthony Bolton's Special Situations Fund, Newman's F&C Special Situations Fund, launched on 30 December 2006, ranked in the top decile of the IMA UK All Companies sector ahead of those funds which were being touted during the year as alternatives to the Fidelity fund.

In contrast, his colleague Kaketsis was tasked with reviving the fortunes of an existing fund, F&C UK Prime, which he took over on 30 December 2006 and which has since been renamed F&C UK Dynamic. The fund has finished its first year under Kaketsis's tenure in the top quartile of the UK All Companies sector.