Bestinvest says
Though still young, fund manager Philip Rodrigs has already generated a formidable track record of outperformance in the IMA UK Smaller Companies sector. Rodrigs has benefited from utilising Investec's in-house quantitative system, 4Factor, whilst also having a good sense of market timing/themes as well as applying good analysis to each company he selects.
The Fund aims to achieve long term capital growth primarily through investment in equities issued by (or in derivatives based on) UK smaller companies. To achieve this the team use a quantitative screening process, 4Factor, to identify potential investment opportunities from a universe of around 800 stocks taken from the FTSE Small Cap ex ITs index. The screen scores stocks across four equally weighted criteria:
1) Strategy - competent management teams creating value for shareholders;
2) Valuation - companies trading at a discount to fair value;
3) Dynamic - companies seeing upwards earnings revisions;
4) Technicals - factors focusing on share price momentum.
The highest scoring stocks are then subject to fundamental analysis by Investec's sector analysts. Finally the portfolio is constructed by the named manager - position sizes vary according to conviction level, the stock's volatility and the stock's effect on portfolio risk.