Funds to watch – 3-yr performance
HyunHo Sohn became the sole manager of the Fidelity Global Technology Fund at the end of October 2013. He had been co-manager since March 2013 and his involvement with the strategy dates back to 2011. Value-chain analysis is the cornerstone of the manager’s investment process, in which he buys companies he believes are best able to profit from a particular product’s life cycle, from those producing component parts right through to those selling the finished product.
The DNB Technology Fund is run by a team headed by Anders Tandberg-Johansen. The team looks for the long-term trends affecting the sector in order to identify the companies that are best positioned to benefit from these trends. Evaluation of a company’s management and its track record is a key part of the investment process, and other company attributes sought by the team include barriers to entry, scale and product demand.
The JPM Europe Technology Fund is managed by the Dynamic team at JP Morgan led by Jonathan Ingram. The approach focuses on three primary factors: momentum (both price and earnings), value and quality. The process also draws on JP Morgan’s behavioural finance model with the intention of capitalising on investors’ behavioural biases.
Funds to watch – newcomers
Parvest Equity World Technology Fund adopts a bottom-up investment strategy, drawing on BNP Paribas’s research network made up of local analysts. There is a focus on company and stock-specific factors rather than geographic or industry features, as the investment team believes that strong stock selection should drive the fund’s performance over time. The fund is managed by Steven Sherman, who took over from previous manager Jeffrey Bray in October 2014. Sherman also manages the Parvest Equity World Telecom fund.
Ivy Global Investors Science and Technology Fund is managed by Zachary Shafran. His team seeks to identify secular trends within industries and then apply a bottom-up investment process using a number of factors including growth and earnings potential, quality of company management, and valuations, while taking the relevant market and economic conditions into consideration.
Funds to watch – AUM
Henderson Horizon Global Technology Fund is managed as a primarily large-cap, benchmark-aware offering by Stuart O’Gorman. He is a highly experienced technology investor whose approach has delivered attractive absolute and relative performance over the past 10 years. It has a high-conviction, thematic approach, combined with his risk awareness at the portfolio construction stage of the process. It is rated Silver by Morningstar.
Franklin Technology Fund is run by John Scandalios. The fund employs a bottom-up, fundamental research approach and seeks to invest in growth companies. It looks for firms with strong market positions, high or increasing profit margins, strong returns on capital investment and quality management teams. The fund will invest lower down the market-cap scale as well as in larger, established technology companies.
Polar Capital Global Technology Fund is managed by Nick Evans and Ben Rogoff, seasoned investors with a keen understanding of technology. Their approach is characterised by the belief they can add value by investing in companies offering new and disruptive technologies. The philosophy leads to a bias towards companies lower down the market-cap scale. The fund is rated Bronze by Morningstar.
