Boom year for multi-manager funds

Over 12 months to 31 December 2006, F&C's unfettered range of multi-manager funds, which comprise F&C Multi-Manager Distribution, F&C Multi-Manager Balanced, F&C Multi-Manager Growth and F&C Multi-Manager Cautious, have seen their assets increase from £375.7m in 2005 to £628.1m.

Richard Philbin, Head of Fund of Funds for F&C, said the funds growth was supported by their consistent performance history.

Relative to their peer groups, F&C Multi-Manager Balanced fund has outperformed the IMA Balanced Managed sector for each of the past five discrete calendar years, F&C Multi-Manager Growth has delivered above average performance within the IMA Active Managed sector for the past four years and the F&C Multi-Manager Distribution and F&C Multi-Manager Cautious funds, which are both within the IMA Cautious Managed sector, have delivered above average returns since launch two years ago.

"We believe in investing for the long term and this is demonstrated by the fact that the majority of funds within our portfolios have been held for at least two years and a number of funds have been held for over four years. By taking this longer term approach to investing we can reduce portfolio turnover, help reduce volatility and ultimately, we believe, align the objectives of the portfolios with those of the underlying investors," said Philbin.

"For us consistency is key and the key quality we seek out through our Traffic Light Analysis process. We are not looking to identify those funds that we think are going to be the flavour of the month, rather those that can consistently add value through a coherent and identifiable process."