Closure assurances
While Thomas has brushed aside the question of his retirement, wealth managers may also like to know that Axa is prepared to soft-close UK Select Opportunities should the fund become too big. A risk committee monitoring his performance has determined that £6.5bn will be the limit.
“I never thought I’d be running a fund bigger than M&G Recovery when I started in the City running a £2m fund,” says Thomas of his £3.7m UK All Companies peer.
“The City has changed a lot since I started here in 1979, and you have to adapt as you go along. Still, value has done badly against growth for the past 12 months and, if that mean regresses, I will not turn up to a client meeting and say ‘I’m a value investor this year, not a growth investor’.
“There was a period in the second half of 2012 when value did much better than growth and I underperformed, mainly because of banks where I am always underweight.”
Selective tastes
A discussion on the merits of financials – or not as the case may be – is a conversation for another time. Still, I leave with the impression of a man who, while obviously well connected with corporates across the UK, remains very selective of what makes it into his portfolio of 66 stocks at present, and is keen to remain a long-term investor should management deliver on their promises.
Few stockpickers will garner the same kind of praise and platitudes as Thomas has during their careers but, in paraphrasing his own motto, things can indeed become different – and very quickly – but the best stick with their convictions.
