Bestinvest says
This new global fund is an attempt to transfer Standard Life’s UK small cap process internationally. Co-manager Harry Nimmo has a successful track record on the Standard Life UK Smaller Companies fund dating back to 1997 – this fund was rated 5 stars by Bestinvest, but was downgraded in 2011 when Standard Life soft closed it (imposed a mandatory initial charge) to limit the fund’s size. His team have also outperformed on a pan European smaller companies fund launched in 2007. However, with Nimmo being new to running international funds we will not be rating this new fund initially, preferring to see him build up a track record first.
The fund’s investment universe consists of the 6500 companies of the MSCI World Small Cap index, though in practice the fund will invest primarily in companies between US$300m and US$5bn in size. The universe will be reduced to around 200-300 companies using Standard Life’s quantitative stock “Matrix”, which has been adapted from the UK version to take account of differing conditions in local markets. These companies will then be researched in more depth. Named manager Harry Nimmo will oversee the process from Edinburgh, with team members travelling the world to carry out company meetings. The team will also feed off the research of Standard Life’s regional and global equity teams and their regional partners. Stock selection criteria will be similar to those used on the UK fund, with the portfolio likely to have a bias to quality growth companies. Regional and sector weightings will be the product of bottom-up stock selection.