28 Jul 2011 08:56
City of London Group
City of London Group's Munro Fund added to Skandia platform as unique OEIC
Fundamental Tracker Investment Management Ltd (FTIM), the majority-owned subsidiary of City of London Group, is pleased to announce that Skandia has added the S & W Munro UK fund to its Skandia Investment Solutions platform.
The Munro Fund is designed to give a better return of the FTSE 350 TR index than conventional index funds because of its bias to value and lower volatility.
The quantitative easing programme that powered the equity rally from March 2009 to January 2011 was led by recovery stocks and value stocks were left behind. This affected our overall fund performance because of its value bias. Since January this year value has come back into favour and performance over the last six months reflects this.
Rob Davies, FTIM's fund manager said:
"We are delighted that Skandia has chosen to add this fund to its market leading platform for IFAs. As the first major distributor to take The Munro Fund it allows mainstream IFAs the opportunity to access the innovative fundamental tracking process and gives investors pure UK equity asset class exposure with exceptionally low volatility."
Mat Wood, Investment Specialist at Skandia said:
"Using fundamental parameters to track the market is a relatively new approach for achieving the returns of the asset class and, if the experience of the US is any guide, it is set to become a much more important channel in the future. The Munro Fund is the only OEIC currently to use this approach and we believe investors will welcome this new addition to our range."
28 July 2011
Enquiries
City of London Group | 020 7628 5518 |
Eric Anstee | |
FTIM | 0141 931 7646 |
Robert Davies | |
College Hill | 020 7457 2020 |
Roddy Watt |
Notes to Editors:
Launched in September 2007, the S&W Munro UK Fund is a fully authorised OEIC run by Fundamental Tracker Investment Management Ltd (FTIM) and uses a unique tightly defined fundamental tracking process. The Fund seeks to deliver the total return of the FTSE 350 index through its unique process of creating a tracker fund using forecast gross cash dividends to construct the portfolio.
The way that forecast dividends are used to create and manage the portfolio is described in detail at www.themunrofund.com
FTIM was formed in 2006 to exploit the benefits of applying the principles of fundamental tracking to equity investments. FTIM's principal shareholder is City of London Group plc.
Robert Davies, the founder and Managing Director of FTIM and Fund Manager to the Munro Fund, worked as a professional geologist in Antarctica and Australia before working for a number of stockbrokers and investment banks in the City for 18 years.
City of London Group plc (COLG) is an investment company, with a wide range of national and international investments. A public company since 1986, COLG has had a full London Stock Exchange listing since August 1996 (LSE symbol CIN).
The Company's strategy is to build a quality Financial Services Group centred on specialist financing and Alternative Fund Management. The Company believes there are particular opportunities in the SME and professional services sectors as major national and foreign banks limit new lending. It therefore seeks to identify and exploit product niches and business models in these sectors where they are supported by strong day to day management teams, providing initial equity, working capital and seed funding for those teams.
The Group seeks above-average performance in growth and income via a prudent mix of low, medium and higher-risk investments. It holds a legacy portfolio of income stocks, offering a high degree of security, which are balanced by a higher risk portfolio, which is primarily focused on the minerals and resources sector, where the Board has particular experience.
Since the final quarter of 2009, COLG has developed three specialist financing funds, pledging significant seed funds to Therium Capital Management Limited, a third party Litigation Funder, Credit Asset Management Limited and Professions Funding Limited, which provides asset backed finance and working capital loans to professional practice firms and Trade Finance Partners Limited, a trade finance provider to the SME market.
Historical investments have been made in Fundamental Tracker Investment Management Ltd, a privately quoted asset management company based in Glasgow (www.fundamentaltracker.com) and FX Capital Group, a privately quoted foreign exchange dealing company (www.fxcapitalgroup.co.uk). These investments are part of a policy of building a niche range of interests in the financial services sector.