THEY want your money and they want it fast. With less than a month to go to the deadline for buying individual savings accounts (Isas), fund managers know that this is the one time of the year when investors may be tempted back into the bombed-out stock market.
While managers are entrusted with our savings, what are they doing with their own Isa money this year? We put that question to some of the UK’s leading fund managers — with the clear stipulation that they were barred from putting cash into their own funds.
Responses ranged from the unsurprising to the downright bizarre. Many of the City’s finest investment managers are looking at shares in Asia’s emerging markets. Others have chosen to put their savings into the theatre.
James Foster, who runs two bond funds for ISIS Asset Management, wins the award for the most original use of his savings. He has put money into theatre productions, including Nutcracker and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He admits that they are high-risk investments, but says that he has doubled his money.
His Isa picks are much less eccentric. “I have been putting 100 per cent of my Isa money into bonds, but I have decided that equities are finally offering good value,” he says. “This year I am putting half my money into bonds and half into an equity fund.”
Theodora Zemek, who manages the fixed-income fund and distribution fund at New Star, is also upbeat about equities and says that she would be looking to invest in an equity income fund run by Liontrust or Credit Suisse.
“I think we will look back in five years’ time and see this as a good buying opportunity for equities, but you must be prepared to wait,” she says. “My advice would be to be brave — I don’t think you will regret it.”
Mrs Zemek, whose husband also works in the City, is being more frugal with any other savings. “We are trying to spend as little as possible on capital goods. In a low-growth and low-inflation environment we do not want to buy anything that depreciates in value. Our rule is to buy from second-hand or antique shops.”
Another fund manager with a very clear idea of where his money goes is Richard Buxton, manager of the Schroder Alpha Plus fund. He says: “I have a simple strategy for any of my spare money. One third goes toward paying off my mortgage, a third into cash and the rest into equities.”
He says that returns in the market are going to be volatile and modest. “As I am 39 years old, I am still of an age when equities will generate good returns. In the medium to long term, they represent outstanding value. But the last thing you want to do is to constrain yourself to the index. You want to be able to take advantage of the rallies.”
He is looking to Asia for his other investments. “Since the Asian crisis in 1997-98, it has fallen off the investment radar. They are locked into a different cycle to the rest of the world. This has to be good for investors in the region.”
Also gazing east, David Franklin, fund manager at Christows, likes the look of the Flemings Indian fund and is investing in the Flemings Russian fund. He is also thinking of aiming some cash towards the Merrill Lynch world mining investment trust. “We may have entered a 20-year bull market for metals,” he says.
Mr Franklin is not investing for the long term, adding: “Whatever I buy, I have no intention of holding on to it for the long term. It’s not going to be like the previous bull market. You need to take profits where you can.”
With his Isa he is investing in exchange traded funds — essentially a basket of shares grouped by industry sector. “The advantage is that they trade in real time, so if you want to buy in at 8am and run for cover at 2pm, you can.” He has recently bought into the pan-European fund run by Barclays Global.
Asia and Eastern Europe also get the thumbs up from John Chatfeild-Roberts, part of a three-man team running the managed portfolio trusts at Jupiter. His Isa is going towards a mix of bonds and equities. “We think that there is good value in equities. But people are still shell-shocked after the market falls, so this a good each-way bet.”
Robin Geffen, managing director of Neptune Investment Management, says: “What is building in bonds is a bubble like we saw with tech stocks.” He says that his Isa money will go into an income fund, going back to the basics of choosing quality companies that pay good dividends. “Fund managers are expected to hold racy Isa portfolios, but I don’t. If the market races away, it is not going to be the whizziest product, but a fund I would have had my grandmother investing in, were she still alive.”
Gary Potter, co-head of Credit Suisse’s multi-manager service, says: “I would consider investing in equities now and would be looking to the likes of Odey European, BWD Microcap and BDT Invest Asian Focus, as I have complete faith in the managers of these funds to generate returns better than can be achieved by keeping money in the bank.”
Neil Hermon, a UK smaller companies manager with Henderson Global Investors, is putting his money into a single stock: WSP, an engineering company with a market capitalisation of just £40 million. “It carries a lot of risk, but yields 7.5 per cent.”
And then there is Jonathan Compton, managing director of Bedlam Asset Managment, the new investment boutique launched with a campaign claiming that rival fund managers were “bleeding savers dry” by levying excessive charges.
“It is madness to be betting on equities while you are still paying off a mortgage. Equities should not be used as a form of guaranteed saving,” he says. “I would not take money from anybody unless they had paid off their mortgage and credit card, taken their full allocation of Premium Bonds and had adequate life insurance.”
But Mr Compton says that guaranteed bonds are not the answer either, unless they can guarantee both the capital and income stream of the bond. So where will his money go? For his 18-year-old daughter, he will invest her Isa allowance in a single share — BP. “Its cashflow is strong and it is yielding 4.3 per cent, more than a ten-year government bond. It is one of the great opportunities this side of Mars.”
