UK Smaller Companies IT or Fund

mr_accountant

i have TB Amati uk smaller cos as part of my uk holdings, good all rounder and well diversified, ATEOFD its a small uk cos fund therefore expect some volitility but long term good returns, i like Paul Jourdan been there since 2000.

also not to big dispite its success (around 400m) so can still claim to be a smaller cos oeic

Sally57

bowlhead99 said:

If you'll consider an OEIC rather than a fund, Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth has a good record, up 75-80% in five years including more than recovering all the March losses, 300% in ten, 600% in fifteen.  It's a billion pounds in size now which sounds too big to be properly 'microcap' because a 1% allocation to something is a £10m investment, so liquidity might be a problem if they were trying to do everything on the micro scale.

For that sort of fund, they are still playing with some very small holdings with three quarters of their value not being in their monthly top ten disclosure, but will have a number that have gone well over their initial allocation as some holdings outgrow the smallcap and AIM indexes.  e.g. they hold Games Workshop which is about 120th in the FTSE 350 with a £3bn market cap; though that company would have only been a twentieth of that market cap four to five years ago. 

Of course, small cap growth will do well in bull markets and it is not really a 'generalist' fund. My Dad has it in his ISA and it's certainly outperformed WPCT / SUPP in the five years since he diverted some of his UK smallcap money from Marlborough into that newly-launching option

Yes, I am considering the Marlborough fund alongside its Nano Growth Fund although that is a far riskier alternative. Also considering LF Gresham House UK Microcap but as Prism mentioned it is quite focused/concentrated. More research needed before making a decision.

aroominyork

Interesting that OP asks about smaller companies and responses cover midcaps and micro caps, with potential differences in market caps around x100. How much of a purposeful decision do people make about where they sit on the spectrum? (I hold Smithson for midcap and Liontrust UK SC for smaller. I don't look at micro or nano.)

Prism

aroominyork said:

Interesting that OP asks about smaller companies and responses cover midcaps and micro caps, with potential differences in market caps around x100. How much of a purposeful decision do people make about where they sit on the spectrum? (I hold Smithson for midcap and Liontrust UK SC for smaller. I don't look at micro or nano.)

I pretend to myself that Smithson holds some small caps though the smallest UK holding is Dominos at £1.5bn. It seems that many of the UK smaller companies funds blur the lines between small and mid cap so I just went for something that fills the gap. The Gresham House Micro cap stretches from about £20m to almost £1bn. Its not very scientific.

MonroeM

StellaN said:

Rights & Issues is a highly concentrated IT so not really for me. I hold Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS). In my opinion it is lower risk, less volatile and has relatively low gearing which suits my requirements.

I hold the OEIC equivalent of SLS namely the ASI UK Smaller Companies Acc fund. I personally feel this fund is lower risk and volatility but also you don’t have to consider gearing or premium/discounts with the fund.

Sally57

Decision made, I finally decided to split my investment between two funds. The ASI UK Smaller Companies Fund and a micro cap fund namely FP Octopus UK Microcap Growth. Although I do realise the latter is a relatively small fund, Thanks all for your opinions.

MPN

Sally57 said:

Decision made, I finally decided to split my investment between two funds. The ASI UK Smaller Companies Fund and a micro cap fund namely FP Octopus UK Microcap Growth. Although I do realise the latter is a relatively small fund, Thanks all for your opinions.

The ASI UK Smaller Companies fund is well established with a long term manager in Harry Nimmo so that’s not a surprising choice even if you had decided on the IT version of the fund. Purely out interest, would you mind me asking what made you decide on the FP Octopus UK Microcap Growth fund?