New Star active portfolio posts six years of consistent outperformance

New Star is delighted to announce that on the 2 January 2008, Mark Harris and Craig Heron celebrated six years of managing the New Star Active Portfolio.

The New Star Active Portfolio, which is in the IMA Active Managed Sector, has outperformed the average fund for each of the last six calendar years. This is a significant achievement as only 36 out of 1,053 IMA funds have managed to achieve this feat – less than 4% of funds across the industry. The New Star Active Portfolio has returned 144.1% compared to 87.1% for the IMA Active Managed sector over a five-year period to 31December 2007 and has been consistently ranked in the first-quartile of its peers over one, three and five years.

A global, multi-asset class remit has been pivotal in generating strong outperformance. By investing in funds as opposed to a portfolio of stocks, the New Star Active Portfolio has benefited from a greater degree of flexibility when moving between regions and asset classes. Mark and Craig have a rigorous investment process combined with strict risk controls and a long-term record of correctly reading the economic cycle and investing accordingly with conviction.

Craig Heron, joint manager of the New Star Active Portfolio, says;

“The outperformance we have generated over the past six years is principally down to our active investment approach, which is driven by the business cycle. We believe that to run with consistent size, style or sector positions as we move through different market cycles is unlikely to reward. We, therefore, actively rotate our portfolios depending on where we believe we are in the cycle.”

Mark Harris, joint manager of the New Star Active Portfolio, says;

“Our objective for 2008 is clear – to deliver a seventh consecutive year of sector-beating returns. Although the investment climate will be challenging, we believe the flexibility of being able to adjust the fund’s blend as conditions change gives us a significant advantage.”

Mark Skinner, managing director, New Star Investment Funds, says;

“These strong returns are a continuation of Mark and Craig’s exceptional long-term performance track record, which has established them as one of the longest serving and best performing multi-manager teams in the UK. It comes as no surprise that the achievements of Mark Harris, Craig Heron and their team resulted recently in New Star being voted ‘Best Multi-Manager Group 2007’”.