In total 47 new Alphas were awarded in this year’s FE list of top-decile alpha generators. The list included 189 awards compared to last year’s 182 despite the volatile markets. The number of women awarded an Alpha increased to 12 – up from ten last year.
Of the 47 new entrants, 39 have previously never been awarded an Alpha rating – including rising stars Johanna Kyrklund whose largest managed fund is £5.2bn (co-managed), Blackrock’s Tom Holl (largest fund around £1.5bn) and JP Morgan’s Amit Mehta (largest fund circa £1.4bn).
On the other hand, 31 managers were taken off the Alpha Manager list, including Polar Capital’s James Salter, Iain Stewart from Newton & BNY Mellon, Adrian Frost and Adrian Gosden from Artemis Fund Managers, as well as Schroder’s Kevin Murphy and Nick Kirrage.
David Coombs from Rathbones, Nigel Thomas from AXA and Rosemary Banyard from Schroders all returned this year having lost their Alpha status in 2015.
Meanwhile, 45 managers made it into the “hall of fame” for consistently making the Alpha Manager list over the past seven years, up from 30 in 2015.
Recognition
Each year FE recognises the top 10% of UK retail-facing managers on their track records going back to 2000. The Alpha Manager Awards will take place in April.
To determine the ratings, FE looks at a manager’s ability to create risk-adjusted alpha, outperformance in both rising and falling markets, and those who consistently beat their benchmarks.
Mika-John Southworth, director at FE said: “These ratings are a quant-driven marker to help advisers and investors spot the best managers in the UK retail investment market.”
“The purpose of the Alpha Manager rating is to take a step back and remove short-term market movements or cyclical factors from the analysis. It allows us to identify the managers who can add value over time – which is fundamental considering the market conditions we have been facing over the past year.”
The UK All Companies sector has the most Alpha managers, followed by the global sector (16) and UK Equity Income and UK Smaller Companies sectors (both 11).
