CityWire.co.uk – With returns in North America over the past 12 months outstripping those of recent years, the sectors top three fund managers have all derived their returns from different sectors of the market.
Smith & Williamson’s A-rated Lady Tana Focke is the only manager to pass the Citywire consistency test over the past five years in the North American sector despite nestling at the bottom of the second quartile over the last 12 months.
North America is a hard market to outperform on a regular basis and Focke has achieved that. Despite this, and being ranked in the top 10 in two of those years, her Nucleus American Trust is still a modest £60 million, up only £16 million on the year.
This is largely because some fund of funds managers and prominent intermediary buyers are unclear about her approach, which is somewhat difficult to pin down compared with other managers in the sector.
Gartmore’s head of multi-manager Bambos Hambi said: ‘Focke has been a very consistent performer considering the fund is essentially a one-women band but we are puzzled about how it manages to achieve that performance. It is difficult to exactly pin down her process and work out how it has the success it has.’
