The Threadneedle Global Focus Fund reached its three-year milestone in April 2021, generating a first quartile net annualised return of 21.32 per cent since launch, compared to an index return of 14.86 per cent and outperforming the MSCI AC World Index 6.46 per cent.
The Threadneedle Global Focus Fund reached its three-year milestone in April 2021, generating a first quartile net annualised return of 21.32 per cent since launch, compared to an index return of 14.86 per cent and outperforming the MSCI AC World Index 6.46 per cent.
Managed by David Dudding, the active “best ideas” global equity fund invests in 30 to 50 companies which he believes to have enduring competitive advantages and the ability to generate strong and sustainable returns.
David Dudding, portfolio manager, Threadneedle Global Focus Fund, says: “Underpinning the Threadneedle Global Focus Fund is a belief that well managed companies can sustain high returns for longer periods than the market assumes. They typically possess enduring competitive advantages that can keep competitors at bay for an extended period and may allow them to deliver stable growth and a predictable cash flow. The benefit of a global approach is that if we think about a particular industry, we are not limited to own the leading business in a particular region – we can own the leading business in the world. Our goal is to build a concentrated portfolio of high-quality companies and invest for the long term.”
Michaela Collet Jackson, Head of Distribution EMEA at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, says: “Following the success of the strategy available in Europe, we launched the same strategy as an OEIC in 2018 for our UK-based clients. This Fund is a prime example of how a well thought-out, active investment process can deliver outperformance for our clients and underpins why as a firm we believe in the value of active management. David successfully navigated his way through a number of turbulent periods over the last three years, including market volatility at the end of 2018 and more recently the Covid-19 global pandemic, utilising his robust investment approach to find high quality companies. We are really pleased that David has been able to deliver such a strong track record and deliver consistent investment returns for our clients.”
Dudding continues: “We assess individual companies on their own merits, looking for those that can compound growth consistently over a multi-year period. This naturally gives us exposure to certain secular trends – ecommerce, cloud computing, health care innovation etc – many of which proved successful in 2020. We benefit from a very deep research capability and a strong collaborative culture at Columbia Threadneedle. We have analysts around the world, many of them portfolio managers in their own right, who can all potentially source ideas for this Fund. This gives us direct access to local market knowledge, which is incredibly important. However, with that level of resource it is important to have a disciplined philosophy and process. This is a high conviction global portfolio, so we want to ensure that we are investing in truly the best company in its industry on a global basis.”
