Jonathan Fieldsend, co-manager of the Capita Financial Epic UK Equity Fund, is a “sociable kind of fund manager”, says the FT. He recognises that many small stocks are not adequately covered by analysts and believes in sourcing his own company information by knocking on their doors. “People open up a bit when you’re on their premises – they tell you what the business is really about, rather than just giving you a PowerPoint presentation.”
With just £42m in assets under management, Fieldsend has the freedom to pursue this proactive approach – wherever it takes him. “Given the size of the fund, we can look at just about anything,” he tells the FT. This means he is well placed to invest in the best of the very small cap stocks that fall beneath the radar of larger rivals, something that has helped the fund return an impressive 86.7% against a UK sector average of 62.1% over the past three years.
But it’s not just about small companies. About 45% of the portfolio is invested in FTSE 100 firms – a strategy Fieldsend describes as “good risk management”. The fund is currently heavily weighted towards the financial sector, with Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC among the largest holdings.
Fieldsend has also held out-of-favour telecoms giant Vodafone for the last four months – in the last two, the shares have risen by almost 20%. “Large-caps are like supertankers,” he tells the FT. They can move, but they don’t move quickly.
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Capita Financial UK Equity Fund top ten holdings
Name of holding % of assets
BP 6.5%
Vodafone 5.8%
Eurovestech 5.4%
HSBC 4.5%
Helphire 4.1%
GlaxoSmithKline 3.0%
Dart 2.9%
Royal Bank of Scotland 2.8%
Royal Dutch Shell 2.6%
Lloyds TSB 2.6%