liontrust launches offshore special sits

Liontrust is launching an offshore version of Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh’s flagship special situations fund, seven years after the original vehicle was unveiled.

liontrust launches offshore special sits
1 minute

The onshore version of the strategy, which was launched in November 2005, has now reached £588m in AUM and has outperformed the IMA UK All Companies Sector and FTSE All share over five years, three years and one year, according to its factsheet.

Since inception the fund has returned 141.8%, as at 30 September, compared to 39.5% from the FTSE All-Share and 34.5% from the sector average (source FE).

The firm said the Dublin-domiciled Oeic is to be launched on 8 November in response to demand from international investors.

Cross and Fosh will use the same “economic advantage” investment process they use in the onshore fund, but the Dublin fund will not mirror it exactly.

The economic advantage process looks for certain characteristics among companies that competitors struggle to reproduce, such as intellectual property, strong distribution channels and significant recurring business.

A company must have at least one of these characteristics to be included in the fund and occasionally companies have all three, Liontrust said.

According to Cross and Fosh, this allows companies to sustain a higher than average level of profitability for longer than expected, which can in turn surprise the market and lead to strong share price performance.

The Liontrust UF Special Situations Fund will have sterling (institutional and retail), euro un-hedged and euro hedged share classes.

MORE ARTICLES ON