Star fund managers continue to be a major draw for investors. Anthony Bolton can draw billions of pounds in investments to his new funds through reputation alone. But if you want to see real returns you need to be able to spot the next generation of Boltons and get in at the start of their story. Anyone who had invested £1,000 with the little-known Bolton in 1979 would be sitting on a £160,500 cash pot now. So who has the potential to become a star fund manager?
“You’ve got to be a bit different to be a successful fund manager,” says Thames River multi-manager Gary Potter in The Sunday Telegraph. “I’m looking for young people who are workaholics, who are good at working in teams but who can also stand out and do their own thing.” One such manager is Richard Staveley (pictured) who is in charge of the River & Mercantile UK Equity Income Fund. Staveley is just 36, but he’s already achieved a great deal.
He’s a qualified chartered accountant who has worked as an assistant hedge fund manager and as head of UK Small Company investments for SGAM before joining River & Mercantile in 2006. In February 2009 Staveley launched the UK Equity Income fund and has returned 24% since then – 22% of that in the last year. “Richard has outperformed the big-named stars in his sector, and he’s done it running less than £100m. He is heir apparent to the UK income sector crown,” says Potter.
The fund has an initial charge of 5.25% and an annual fee of 1.5%, but you can cut both charges by investing via a fund supermarket, such as Hargreaves Lansdown or CoFunds.
Contact: 020-7601 6262.
R&M Equity Income Fund top ten holdings
| Name of holding | % of assets |
|---|---|
| HSBC Holdings | 7.30% |
| Vodafone Group | 5.69% |
| BP | 5.58% |
| GlaxoSmithKline | 5.10% |
| Royal Dutch Shell B | 3.88% |
| AstraZeneca | 3.66% |
| British American Tobacco | 3.18% |
| Unilever | 2.38% |
| Rio Tinto | 2.09% |
| Centrica | 2.01% |