S&P Fund Services Assigns Rating to Premier Pan European Property Share Fund

The fund is managed in a decisive stockpicking manner that is unconstrained by any set tracking error relative to benchmark. Fund manager, Alex Ross, is an experienced investor in property shares, having managed this fund for over five years and previously run a property share unit trust at Aberdeen Asset Management.

The fund’s benchmark for performance comparison is the GPR Europe index (GBP hedged), although portfolio construction is left totally to the manager’s discretion. This benchmark was changed in 2010 to more appropriately reflect the objectives and profile of the fund’s sterling-based unit holders. Regulatory restrictions can make this benchmark difficult to match as its largest component stock accounts for 17% which cannot be replicated in the fund. The ample latitude allowed to the manager is evident from the current 25% off-benchmark investment in asset managers within the portfolio.

Ross pursues a focused, bottom-up management approach and is willing to back his views decisively. He will not compromise on quality to pursue short-term gains – highlighted by the fund’s temporary underperformance in early 2010 – and tends to buy positions relatively early and on a three-year view. Buyers of this fund should also adopt a similar time horizon.

“The experience of the manager, his clear, decisive and pragmatic management style and the fund’s successful relative track record, particularly in difficult times, support the fund achieving an S&P A rating,” said Linda-Jane Coffin, lead analyst, S&P Fund Services.