Lee Freeman Shor, lead portfolio manager of the fund decided to put Plackett into his line-up of 10 ‘best ideas’ managers after “fantastically good performance” from him in UK mandates he runs for Skandia Investment Group (SIG).
Plackett is a UK stock-picking specialist and his appointment is a strategic move to diversify away from a European overweight that had become an unintentional currency bet, Freeman Shor explained.
“Richard already manages three other 10-stock UK equity mandates for me. Over the past three years he has delivered a return of 133%, massively outperforming the FTSE UK All Share Index which delivered 33% and the average UK manager that has returned 31%.”
Plackett has replaced Boston and quants-based manager Acadian, but Freeman Shor stressed that the team there had not done a bad job.
“I am lucky in that none of my managers have disappointed me,” he added.
He likened his €340m Best Ideas fund, which now has a four-year track record, to an A-star football team and said he only makes changes when he thinks there is a manager that will better complement the existing line up in terms of style, country focus and strength of performance.
Often he will have potential future managers run a paper portfolio for a couple of years to prove their ability in running a 10-stock mandate, which he said is a true test of a manager’s conviction.
While he would not elaborate on the fund managers currently running paper portfolios for him, a previous top tier manager he has appointed after passing this test is Jupiter’s Cedric de Fonclare.
The Skandia European Best Ideas Fund is a top quartile fund since launch in 2008 and has outperformed 90% of all other European funds in its peer group (1,104 funds in total). Year-to-date it is in the top 5% of its peer group, according to data from SIG.
James Millard, Chief Investment Officer at Skandia Investment Group said: “The fact the fund has delivered such outstanding results for clients during a period in history that has been exceptionally difficult for active managers, is very pleasing.
“It has been a true test of the ‘best ideas’ philosophy and style of fund management and we have shown how powerful this approach to managing money can be. It is even more satisfying that while the average fund lost 6.4% over that period of time the Skandia European Best Ideas Fund was up 5.6% and made money for investors.”
