Strong showing for European Equities Unconstrained SICAV Fund

Standard Life Investments, the global fund manager, today announced the third anniversary of its European Equities Unconstrained SICAV Fund.

Launched on 14 April 2008, the Fund has produced 13th percentile performance over three years, 11th percentile performance over two years and 32nd percentile performance over the last twelve months.

Iain Galloway, Fund Manager - European Equities Unconstrained SICAV Fund, said: "The Fund has outperformed its peer group and European stock market indices in both rising and falling markets over the past three years. Europe is a huge continent and the Fund's ability to invest far and wide with broad diversification has been a big factor in this outperformance.

"The Fund can invest into Central and Eastern Europe. Also, with only around 30 stocks in the portfolio, each one is a material proportion of the Fund. Therefore all of these best ideas are capable of contributing significantly to performance. The low turnover of the Fund and the two year holding period also illustrates confidence in our stock picking abilities.

"Contributions have come from the likes of Fresenius SE, the healthcare conglomerate, Storebrand, the Swedish and Norwegian life insurance company, and Svenska Handelsbanken, the Swedish Bank.

"Based on metrics like dividend yield, European equities still look cheap compared to most other asset classes and much more attractive than bonds. Against this favourable background, the Fund is well-placed to capitalise on the great investment opportunities currently available in European equities."

Structured as a sub-fund forming part of Standard Life Investments' Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV range (see notes to editors) and, the =56.2m2 Fund aims to provide capital growth over the longer term by investing in European equities.

The Fund typically holds a concentrated portfolio of stocks and is actively managed by Iain Galloway, supported by a strong European investment team, who select stocks, without reference to index weight, to try to take advantage of the opportunities identified.