Not too long ago a fund hitting the milestone of £1bn, and then £3bn, was a rarity. Today across 30 of the main sector groupings, including Unclassified, there are some 250 funds with assets of £1bn and higher. Within this around 30 are now larger than £5bn.
In pure number terms the UK All Companies sector has the largest absolute number of £1bn-plus funds at 31 out of 285, followed by the Specialist sector where there are 30 out of 224. However, Global Bonds has 29 out of 118 giving it the highest percentage, followed by Sterling Corporate Bond with 14 out of 88, almost 16%.
While many of those in the Global Bond sector, particularly the emerging market debt portfolios, are US dollar denominated, once converted the majority still surpass one billion in sterling terms.
The Unclassified sector, now the largest fund grouping by far with more than 708 funds, has lowest percentage of billion-plus funds at 1.5%. Meanwhile in absolute number terms the number of large funds in the emerging market sectors is growing. Over 12% of funds in the Global Emerging Markets sector are exceed a billion in assets, a further eight in the Asia ex Japan sector and another seven in the China sector, although again, many of these are USD-denominated.
Among the largest retail funds in the market are Aberdeen and First State’s emerging market and Asian portfolios, many of which are now closed to new investors. The largest across all UK equity funds are Neil Woodford’s income funds, followed by Scottish Widows UK All Share Tracker at £10.5bn and M&G Recovery at £7.4bn.
M&G has a high number of billion-plus funds across its retail range, with 14 different funds exceeding £1bn.
