Bestinvest says
Manager Richard Plackett’s team has specialist expertise in mid and small sized companies, but he also benefits from the input of their wider UK team as well as the other equity teams at BlackRock. His pragmatic investment approach – he looks at value as well as growth stocks and searches throughout the market cap spectrum for investment opportunities - has led to strong performance throughout the market cycle. Plackett also achieved success on smaller companies and income funds at BlackRock and previous employer M&G.
The fund invests across the entire UK equity market including AiM, but has a structural bias to medium and small sized companies. Manager Richard Plackett, who runs BlackRock’s UK small/mid cap team, views himself primarily as a growth investor i.e. prefers business growing faster than the market average, and believes these are more commonly found amongst smaller companies. FTSE 100 companies tend to be owned where growth stories are not generally represented in small / mid caps e.g. cash generative resource companies, or where compelling value opportunities exist. These will be chosen in conjunction with the wider BlackRock UK equity team.
80% of research is internal, with the UK small/mid cap team carrying out around 700 company meetings a year. They look for companies with the following characteristics: high quality management; strong market position with barriers to entry; strong cash generation; a track record of consistent growth (or a catalyst for change); strong balance sheet.
The process is primarily bottom up – bottom up driven sector views are sometimes formed, in which case they will be confirmed with the BlackRock strategy team.