By MARK HINTON 27/07/2007
Whitney George took over the management of this fund from Chuck Royce in April 2007. Essentially, there is no change in style or investment philosophy as Whitney George has worked at Royce & Associates for the last 15 years. Royce & Associates are small company specialists in the US and the team around George is strong. Investors should view this internal change as business as usual.
Whitney George places emphasis on high-quality companies and follows a bottom-up approach to stock picking. He focuses on identifying good companies that are generating strong or improving free cash flow and returns on invested capital. These businesses typically possess strong balance sheets, and are trading at reasonable valuations that yield attractive risk/reward opportunities. Current themes within the portfolio are steel, precious metals and energy.
Based on the strong track record of Whitney George and the team at Royce & Associates, we are comfortable re-instating the 3 star rating on this fund.