Schroders makes changes to the European Opportunities Fund
Kate Marshall | Mon 14 May 2018
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- Steve Cordell has stepped down as the fund's manager
- Andrew Lyddon and Andrew Evans have taken over running the fund
- Their own investment style means the way the fund is invested is likely to change
Steve Cordell has stepped down as manager of the Schroder European Opportunities Fund. He will leave the firm later this year. From today, 14 May, the fund is managed by Andrew Lyddon and Andrew Evans.
The fund's name has also changed to Schroder European Recovery to reflect the new way the managers will run the fund.
What can investors expect?
The previous manager used a business cycle approach to investing. This means he starts by looking at what's going on in the wider economy. He then aims to identify the next stage of the business cycle, such as a recovery or slowdown, and invest in the types of company that will benefit.
Andrew Lyddon and Andrew Evans won't use this approach. Instead they use a recovery investment style. This means they invest in companies that have been through a tough patch, but have the potential to recover. This allows them to buy shares at an attractive price, which could rise once the company recovers or comes back to favour.
What do we think?
We view Steve Cordell as a sensible and experienced fund manager. He built a solid longer-term record, but the fund has lagged the performance of the broader European stock market for several years.
Schroders have appointed new managers they believe have the potential to deliver good long-term performance, although there's no guarantee the new managers or process will achieve this.
| Annual percentage growth | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2013 -
Apr 2014 |
Apr 2014 -
Apr 2015 |
Apr 2015 -
Apr 2016 |
Apr 2016 -
Apr 2017 |
Apr 2017 -
Apr 2018 | |
| Schroder European Recovery | 25.0% | 4.4% | -2.3% | 22.1% | 8.0% |
| FTSE World Europe ex UK | 14.8% | 7.0% | -3.9% | 28.8% | 7.4% |
Past performance is not a guide to the future. Source: Lipper IM to 30/04/2018.
Andrew Lyddon joined Schroders in 2005. He co-manages a number of funds, including Schroder Global Recovery, and invests across global stock markets. Andrew Evans joined later in 2015, but has prior investment experience.
The managers have run several European funds since 2016. This is over a short period of time, so they don't have a long enough track record investing in Europe that we can analyse. We'd prefer the managers to build a longer record in order to make a full assessment of their capabilities. For this reason the fund doesn't currently feature on the Wealth 150+ list of our favourite funds.
Please read the Key Features/ Key Investor Information in addition to the information above.