Bestinvest says
This is one of the few European funds to provide exposure across most of the market capitalisation range. The fund manager, Colin Stone, is a small cap specialist who relies mainly on Fidelity's highly rated research team for selection of the large companies. The fund has benefited from its bias to small and mid cap stocks as well as the manager's consistent growth style but is likely to underperform in large cap, value driven markets.
The aim is to achieve long-term capital growth through investment primarily in a portfolio of Continental European equities. The fund invests across the equity markets of Continental Europe and while the focus is on selection of individual companies, key industries are also identified.
The approach is primarily driven from stock selection with there being little attention paid to top down factors, although the split between large and small cap holdings will vary from time to time depending on the outlook for each. Stone conducts over 600 manager meetings a year and focuses on market leaders and companies in niche areas of the market, especially where he feels that the market is under researched.
The manager has a bias to growth stocks.