'AA' rating upgrades for F&C's funds of funds suite

F&C Investments has seen each of its four unfettered funds of funds portfolios – Multi-Manager Growth, Multi-Manager Balanced, Multi-Manager Distribution and Multi-Manager Cautious – upgraded to AA-status by Standard & Poors Fund Research.

In its latest asset allocation review, S& P describes the quantitative screening process employed by the F&C multi-manager team, known as Traffic Light Analysis, as "extremely effective" . Traffic Light Analysis is designed to highlight the most consistent funds in each asset class. For each of the four F&C funds S&P concludes: "the team has made good use of the disciplined quant driven approach and has achieved consistently good results supporting an upgrade to an S&P AA rating."

"This is excellent news and a strong endorsement of the clear process which Richard Philbin and his team have successfully developed over a number of years," said Jason Hollands, Director, Head of Communications at F&C. "They have delivered exactly what they themselves search for in their underlying managers, namely consistent, steady out performance. This is further demonstrated by the relatively low level of turnover within the F&C portfolios."

"F&C has real momentum in our retail multi-manager business," said Hollands, "which is firmly grounded in a combination of investment success and a solution-driven approach to marketing the funds with intermediaries partners. We look forward to continued success in this part of our retail business."