Some fund managers outperform with ease in one sector , but struggle when they try to branch out into other areas . This is not a problem faced by Mark Slater , manager of Slater Investments . He focuses purely on the UK , and his three funds are top-decile performers in their respective sectors over 10 years . His largest strategy at £ 983m is
Slater Growth , which is the thirdbest performer out of 205 funds in the IA UK All Companies sector over 10 years . One of the only two funds to beat it over this time is
Slater Recovery , run by the same manager . Slater manages Slater Growth using a growth-at-a-reasonableprice approach . This involves identifying profitable , fast-growing and cash-generative companies with a competitive advantage , and buying them at a discount to their true worth .
The fund uses strict valuation targets and will simply hold cash if nothing is available to buy at a suitable price . “ This can lead to periods of high cash positions , yet doesn ’ t seem to impact performance ,” said the analysts at FE Investments . The fund typically buys for the long term , only selling if the valuation target is met , the competitive advantages deteriorate , the investment principles change , or better opportunities appear elsewhere . It currently has a portfolio of 35 to 50 holdings with a bias to small- and medium-sized firms . Despite the fund ’ s strong long-term performance , its growth strategy has counted against it this year and it is down 29.3 % compared with a fall of 17.1 % from its sector . However , Slater has not been fazed by the pullback and has sold only two
/ 48 / trustnet . com