Bestinvest says
Manager Jorma Korhonen stepped down in December 2011 following a tenure characterised by volatile performance. His replacement, ex-Threadneedle global manager Jeremy Podger, joins the company in March 2012 - we will reconsider the fund's rating in due course.
The manager takes a contrarian approach, looking for stocks he sees as having unrecognised value. These may include companies undergoing restructuring or in industries going through structural change, companies with unappreciated growth potential or whose market value is substantially below their asset value. Ideas can be sourced from "traditional" bottom-up stockpicking or by identifying global themes, then looking for industries and stocks that will benefit from them.
The fund invests in companies of all sizes but tends to have a bias to those that with a market capitalisation between US$1-10billion - the manager believes this section of the market is under-researched. The bulk of the fund will be in traditional long positions (gaining from shares that go up in value). However, there will also be a small portion invested in "short" positions (using derivatives to benefit from share price falls). Due to their higher risk shorts are selected with a 6 month time horizon, whereas the manager takes a 12-18 month view on long exposure.