Interactive Investor

Fund to watch: Standard Life UK Equity Unconstrained

27th May 2015 10:03

Rob Griffin from interactive investor

Investors in Standard Life's UK Equity Unconstrained fund - which was the winner in the UK All Companies sector of the Moneywise Fund Awards 2014 - must be willing to accept a relatively high degree of stock-specific risk due to the unconstrained nature in which it is run.

Its manager, Edward Legget, aims to provide long-term growth by investing in a concentrated portfolio of stocks, without reference to index weight or size.

And it's this focus on finding attractive opportunities that has helped establish him as one of the best performing UK fund managers, according to Patrick Connolly at Chase de Vere.

"Legget is not scared of taking big bets, including having zero weighting in some of the major stocks or sectors, and he is particularly adept at finding good value in mid-sized companies," he says. "A potential risk is that the fund size has grown quite significantly although so far this hasn't proved to be a problem."

At present, the fund has 53.3% of assets in FTSE 250 companies, 35.3% in those from the FTSE 100, and 9.8% in small caps, according to its most recent fund factsheet.

Industrials, meanwhile, is the sector with the largest presence in the fund at 37.9%, followed by 20% in financials, 11.6% in consumer services and 10.6% in consumer goods.

The 10 largest holdings account for 36.9% of the fund's assets, with the largest names including Crest Nicholson, BT and L&G.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

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