By MARCEL PORCHERON 18/03/2009
Sanjeev Shah has built on his already promising track record since taking over control of the Fidelity Special Situations fund from Anthony Bolton. We initially advised investors to take a cautious approach to investing new money. However, Shah has navigated difficult conditions skilfully during a period when other managers have faltered. He now has a four year track record in the UK All Companies sector over which he has beaten the index by more than a cumulative 20%. His Bestinvest MRI is 98.4% suggesting that it is highly likely that he is adding value.
Because we have full disclosure of portfolio activity we are now more confident that Shah is adding value through his decisions. The fund is diversified by underlying stock with more than 130 held in the portfolio and although the emphasis remains on buying the shares of companies that are attractive the manager is also using derivatives to help him outperform the market.
Shah is potentially well positioned to outperform in future because of his contrarian investment style, which can lead to both value and growth opportunities in the portfolio, and his tentative use of derivatives. He is currently overweight consumer services and banks and underweight resource stocks.