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Cazenove / Schroder UK Smaller Companies

I wondered if anyone had any insight in to the decline in the performance on the Cazenove UK Smaller Companies fund. Since the merger with Schroder and the name change to Schroder UK Dynamic Smaller Companies the performance of the fund is well lagging the benchmark.

http://www.trustnet.com/Factsheets/Factsheet.aspx?FundCode=CBUKSC&univ=U

Is there an explanation for this?

Comments

  • planteria
    planteria Posts: 5,321 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    the fund was being soft closed...is it closed now? it has previously been a very good performer.
    i held it for a short time, and had some growth from it, but have focused on Marlborough Special Situations as my Smaller Companies Fund since then.
  • westy22
    westy22 Posts: 1,105 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Well it has beaten the benchmark over 1 year and has matched the benchmark over 6 months. In fact, it has only lagged the benchmark since the end of February so you are concerned about the last 8 weeks?

    Maybe the specific stocks it is invested in have been hit harder than others over the past 8 weeks - that doesn't mean that it will happen again that way for the next 8 weeks. Or it might!
    Old dog but always delighted to learn new tricks!
  • Linton
    Linton Posts: 17,711 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Hung up my suit!
    The under-performance would appear to have only occurred in the past 2 months. 2 months fund results mean nothing.

    If you want a possible explanation - the fund looks higher risk than the average and so gains more in the good times and loses more in the bad. The last couple of months have not been good generally for small companies. On the other hand it could be random noise.
  • I was aware that it had been on soft close and the name change, but might of missed something that was affecting performance i.e manager change.

    Is it just a coincidence that all of this has happened around the time of a name and ownership change?

    8 weeks is not worrying me, but keeping my eye on it for a longer term trend.
  • sorcerer
    sorcerer Posts: 878 Forumite
    A lot of smaller companies fund have suffered recently, due to pull back of the market, and what people regards as high value stocks, so I think many stocks that have risen sharply over the last few years have been hit. This has effected Biotech, Tech and Smaller Companies more than others. But for the time being I am not too concerned and I will continue to hold this and my other smaller company fund from standard life.


    Just as a side note, yes the fund is hard closed, it was closed I think in Jan or Feb.
  • Rollinghome
    Rollinghome Posts: 2,711 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    As I remember the fund was hard-closed because it had attracted so much money that it became difficult for the manager to invest in smaller companies and maintain performance.

    Cazenove gave a couple of month's notice and perversely many investors, instead of taking that as a warning, rushed to put still more money in - presumably exacerbating the problem. Unlikely that the upheaval of a change of ownership did much to help either.

    Another reminder that very few funds continue to outperform indefinitely.
  • sorcerer
    sorcerer Posts: 878 Forumite
    As I remember the fund was hard-closed because it had attracted so much money that it became difficult for the manager to invest in smaller companies and maintain performance.

    Cazenove gave a couple of month's notice and perversely many investors, instead of taking that as a warning, rushed to put still more money in - presumably exacerbating the problem. Unlikely that the upheaval of a change of ownership did much to help either.

    Another reminder that very few funds continue to outperform indefinitely.

    Guilty I'm afraid, I doubled my holdings when I heard it was hard closing.
  • JohnRo
    JohnRo Posts: 2,887 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    'We don't need to be smarter than the rest; we need to be more disciplined than the rest.' - WB
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