Aberdeen boosts European exposure in multi-manager range

16 August 2012 | By Chris Salih

Aberdeen Asset Management’s multi-manager team has boosted exposure to European equities across its fund range with the introduction of the JO Hambro Continental European fund.

The £468m fund, which is managed by Rod Marsden, has been allocated a 2 per cent weighting on average across the majority of the seven-strong fund range as the team looks to reduce its underweight to the region.

The purchase means the £295m Cautious Managed fund has a 2 per cent weighting compared with 6.1 per cent for the sector, while the Balance Managed and Equity Managed funds have weightings of 6 and 8 per cent respectively, compared with sector averages of 10.6 and 11.4 per cent.

Portfolio manager Rob Bowie says: “We are far from bulls on European equities and hence we remain underweight, but will remain cognisant of the opportunities in this market as future events unfold. There is an attraction that is likely to grow in company valuations.”

The team has also bolstered European exposure in the £67.6m Aberdeen Multi-Manager Constellation fund by 4 per cent courtesy of the £93m Hermes SourceCap Europe ex-UK fund, managed by James Rutherford. The introduction brings the fund’s exposure to Europe to 16 per cent as the fund already holds the JO Hambro Continental European, Henderson Special Situations and Neptune European Opportunities funds.

The multi-manager team has also tweaked its income exposure with the introduction of the £100m Cazenove UK Equity Income fund, managed by Matthew Hudson. The fund has been added to the Balanced Managed and Equity Managed portfolios and sits alongside the £4.1bn Artemis Income and £1.1bn JO Hambro UK Equity Income funds.

Bowie says: “This fund seeks to align the underlying portfolio holdings to the top-down market view. As such, it has a degree of flexibility to adapt to the changing environment, which is what we have been looking for in this environment.”

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