Fund Objective

The fund focuses on achieving medium to long term capital growth.

View on Past Performance

Performance was strong over the third quarter with the Fund posting an impressive absolute return against a backdrop of falling markets.We purchased Astec Industries, a niche manufacturer of road building machinery. International sales are booming with the cheap dollar and in the long term we believe the need to rebuild US infrastructure should benefit this company.We also bought Global Industries, a provider off-shore oil field construction services which is expanding into international markets and Atlantic Tele-Networks, a telecommunications company. The latter is part of the portfolio's focus on niche wireless service companies that will benefit from the growth of mobile data.We sold two companies as a result of bids: Longs Drug Stores, a West Coast retailer that received an offer from CVS and Intervoice, a provider of automated voice response services, which agreed a takeover by Convergys. In addition we sold Fred's, a discount retailer, amid a strong rally.

Future Expectations

Whilst much uncertainty remains there are grounds for some optimism. A retreat in the price of oil should provide impetus to economic growth and more specifically for investors in the Fund conditions for value orientated stocks seem to be improving.

Fund Details