Jersey-Based Fund Ranked Europe’s Top Performer

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

10 August 2005

The Ashburton European Fund, which is managed by Ashburton’s investment team in Jersey, has outperformed the market over the last 12 months and is ranked number one of all sterling based funds amongst comparable funds.

According to Calvin Vaudin, who has managed the Fund since inception, its success can largely be attributed to its emphasis on industrial sectors rather than specific countries or regions.

"For example, we have had a high exposure to industrial companies (including shipping) which are prime beneficiaries of the very strong Far Eastern demand," Mr Vaudin noted.

He added that:

“Similarly, although almost 30% of the Fund is invested in Scandinavia, especially Norway, our focus has been on companies serving the oil industry, which are benefiting from the high oil price and, more importantly, are cheap when compared to the valuations of their other European and US counterparts."

“Overall, we have recognised that European economic growth has been poor in comparison to the US and the Far East, so we have been identifying companies that are earning profits from global growth rather than domestically orientated European firms.”

On a 12 month rolling basis, Ashburton’s European Fund has returned 26.81%, outperforming its MCSI benchmark by 11.66%. The Fund is in the top three per cent of the 400 plus funds with which it can be compared, in addition to being top amongst sterling based funds.

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