By STEPHEN MARRIOTT 28/07/2008
Peter Langerman took over the management of this fund in April 2005 following the departure of David Winters (former CIO), who had successfully managed the fund for over four years. However, under Langerman performance has been weak - the Bestinvest MRI for the manager is only 47.2% (3.2 years).
The fund typically invests in deep value stocks and distressed securities, and area of the market that has been out of favour during the last 12 months. Nevertheless, this style of investing was more favourable in 2005 and 2006 and yet the fund failed to really capitalise.
We have thus downgraded the fund to two stars (hold rating), but would caution that should markets benefit from a run in financials and value related stocks the fund is likely to benefit.