Goldman Sachs Asset Management has retained its Overall Large Group accolade in this year’s Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards for the UK, the results of which were revealed today. The firm also won the Large Mixed Asset Group award while Chelsea Financial Services picked up the Small Mixed Asset Group award for the second year in succession.
Mercer and Nomura Asset Management won the two big fixed-income gongs – respectively for Large Bond Group and Small Bond Group – while, underlining the quants-based nature of the awards, which seek to identify the best funds with retail share classes on the basis of risk-adjusted performance, the other group awards went to names perhaps less well-known to UK investors. Union Bancaire Privée and Chahine Capital respectively won the Large Equity Group and Small Equity Group awards while Jyske Invest was named Overall Small Group.
More on the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards: Dewi John – What does ‘good’ look like?
Among funds to win individual awards for their showing over three years were Baillie Gifford Positive Change (Equity Global), Slater Growth (Equity UK), JPM US Growth (Equity US), BlackRock European Dynamic (Equity Europe ex UK), Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond (Bond GBP Corporates), FTF Brandywine Global Income Optimiser (Bond Global GBP) and Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust (Mixed Asset GBP Balanced).
The winners of the 20 largest award classifications by assets under management (AUM) on a three-year timeframe can be viewed in the table below. You can find all the winners of the 2022 Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards here.
Objectivity and rigour
In total, approaching 250 funds won individual awards across three, five and 10-year timeframes. “Objectivity and rigour are vital in an industry that is saturated with accolades,” said the group’s head of research, UK & Ireland Dewi John.
“These fund awards are unique in that they are the only ones based entirely on objective, quantitative criteria, recognising exceptional outperformance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a fund’s peers. There is no bias and no nomination process. Each award is based entirely on quantitative analysis.”
Refinitiv Lipper has now been running its fund awards for three decades, in that time extending its coverage to nearly 20 major markets around the world. The process is underpinned by Refinitiv Lipper’s fund data and proprietary quantitative methodology.
The universe for the awards is made up of mutual funds from across the asset classes: equity, bond, mixed-asset, commodity and alternatives. To be eligible, funds must demonstrate a minimum of three years’ performance history and be registered for sale in the UK. “To ensure we compare like with like, we classify funds by type, asset class, country, currency, term and more,” said John. “Each fund award is based on one of our granular and clearly defined Lipper Global Classifications.
“The group awards, meanwhile, are won by those fund providers who have scored the highest across their fund ranges in each asset class, and overall. We recognise excellence both in large providers and small, so that the skill demonstrated in the latter is not swamped by the larger providers. Taken together, this allows investors to make like-for-like comparisons between funds that share meaningful characteristics.”
Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards 2022 – 20 largest award classifications, over three years, by AUM
| Award | Fund | Provider | Fund count |
| Absolute Return GBP High | TMI Diversified Assets GBP Acc | Thomas Miller Investment IOM | 14 |
| Absolute Return GBP Medium | LF Ruffer Total Return Fund O Acc | Ruffer | 14 |
| Bond GBP Corporates | Schroder Sterling Corporate Bond C Acc | Schroders | 67 |
| Bond GBP Inflation Linked | BIBF Index Linked A GBP Acc | BlackRock | 16 |
| Bond Global GBP | FTF Brandywine Glo Inc Opt X Inc GBP | Franklin Templeton | 50 |
| Bond Global High Yield GBP | Schroder High Yield Opportunities A Acc | Schroders | 19 |
| Equity Asia Pacific ex Japan | Baillie Gifford Pacific A Acc | Baillie Gifford | 147 |
| Equity Emerging Mkts Global | St. James’s Place Emerging Markets Equity L Acc | St James’s Place | 190 |
| Equity Europe ex UK | BlackRock European Dynamic A Acc | BlackRock | 80 |
| Equity Global | Baillie Gifford Positive Change B Acc | Baillie Gifford | 512 |
| Equity Global Income | Baillie Gifford Responsible Global Eq Inc B Acc | Baillie Gifford | 66 |
| Equity Japan | FSSA Japan Equity VI Acc EUR | First Sentier Investors | 94 |
| Equity UK | Slater Growth A Acc | Slater Investments | 160 |
| Equity UK Income | FP Octopus UK Multi Cap Income Class S Acc | Octopus Investments | 76 |
| Equity UK Sm&Mid Cap | MI Chelverton UK Equity Growth B Acc | Chelverton Asset Management | 61 |
| Equity US | JPM US Growth A Dis USD | JPMorgan | 200 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Aggressive | Royal London Sustainable World Trust A Inc | Royal London | 208 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Balanced | Royal London Sustainable Diversified Trust A Inc | Royal London | 266 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Conservative | Royal London Sustainable Mngd Gro Trust B Acc | Royal London | 93 |
| Mixed Asset GBP Flexible | Credo Growth A Retail Acc GBP | Credo | 85 |
Note: ‘Fund count’ refers to the number of funds under consideration for a particular award classification. Source: Refinitiv Lipper
