It’s not clear if he’ll manage funds directly, but an investor is only as good as his last quarter’s results so let’s have a look at the funds he currently runs and see what the fuss is about.
We’ll look at three funds that Paras manages: He’s lead manager of the £642m F&C Institutional European fund; he manages the £166m F&C European Growth and Income fund; and the small-cap £88m European Assets Trust.
All these portfolios are Europe ex-UK – and relative to the IMA Europe ex-UK sector, Anand has managed to just keep ahead of the pack with his two large cap funds. The difference is just 1-2% over three years, however.
The Funds
As you’ll see from the graph, the small-cap European Assets Trust underperformed the DJ Eurostoxx 50 – but that is just a reflection of the terrible time small caps have had – relative to the MSCI Europe ex UK small cap index, Anand’s fund outperformed its peer group by almost 14% over three years.
Despite this success, FE’s analysis puts him firmly in the centre of European equity managers; any alpha he generates flucuates around the 0 mark.
Capabilities
So – not a high-performance picture, but then the track record at F&C is short – he’s only been at F&C for just over three years – and not the easiest three years on the books, exactly.
So, what might he do when he is in overseeing the mighty Fidelity European funds? Taking a simple metric, lets look at the FE Crown ratings, a measure of risk-adjusted return over three years with three crowns being in the top 20%, two crowns in the next 30% and one crown in the bottom half.
The new stable
The Fidelity European is almost £3bn – but it is down almost 8% over three years – its sector averaged -1.4%. One crown.
The £600m Fidelity Europe Institutional – one crown.
The £610m Fidelity European Opportunities – two crowns.
The one fund he may not want to touch is the Fidelity European Dynamic Growth, managed by Fabio Riccelli – firstly because it’s a three crown fund – secondly, it includes UK stocks.
If Anand can generate some spark among his new stable, then, in the face of a pretty hopeless looking macro and political environment, this could be a great chance for him to make a big splash – which will be good for both him and his investors.
