Bestinvest says
At the end of 2008 Ashton Bradbury handed over management of the fund to his former deputy Richard Watts, though Bradbury remains at Old Mutual. Following this news we downgraded the fund to two stars. Whilst we still view Old Mutual's small / mid-cap resources as strong, we have preferred to watch Watts' progress from the sidelines and we will reconsider our rating once he has built up a longer track record. The fund remains a hold. Our favoured UK mid cap fund is Rensburg UK Mid Cap Growth.
The fund seeks capital growth from investment primarily in medium sized UK companies. The managers believe these are less well researched than large companies, creating price inefficiencies which they aim to exploit using a combination of top-down and bottom-up analysis. The managers use a range of economic indicators to determine which sectors are likely to outperform or underperform the overall economy - this top-down view is used in shaping the overall portfolio. The managers believe no one style works consistently so both growth and value stocks will be held, dependant on the state of the economic cycle.
The bottom-up analysis focuses on stocks with at least one of the following attributes: (i) Consistently superior profits growth; (ii) Likelihood of positive earnings revisions; (iii) Potential for a re-rating. In identifying these, stocks are initially put through a valuation filter before qualitative issues are considered.