Fund Objective

The Premier Multi-Asset Growth Fund aims to provide long -term capital growth from a portfolio of investments in regulated collective investment schemes.

View on Past Performance

October turned out to be one of the worst months in several decades for financial markets, as concerns over the credit crunch spilled over into fears over the health of the global economy. This was exacerbated by hedge fund forced selling. Many have over promised and under delivered in recent months, causing their clients to redeem in droves. This, in turn, meant those hedge funds were forced to sell their investments with no regard for their true value, which pushed markets even lower.The Fund's majority weighting in equities was the chief cause of its losses over the month, as equity markets took a pummelling. However, the Fund's large weighting in Japan and the US provided some relative support over the period, as the yen and the dollar both climbed dramatically against the pound. Our corporate bond funds proved less defensive than hoped, as their holdings in financial companies came under pressure from the banking crisis.The Fund has also been hurt by holding -specific problems during the month. M&G European Leveraged Loans has been the most costly. We bought this fund because the corporate loans market, in which it invests, has historically provided a less volatile alternative to high-yield bonds with lower default rates. However, the asset class was widely held by hedge funds, which have been forced to sell these assets regardless of their quality as they try to meet redemptions.We added a number of new holdings that we thought had fallen too far and therefore offer great value. These included Blackrock Gold and General and three structured products from Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.We also added M&G's Strategic Corporate Bond Fund,whose manager has steered his Fund through the credit crisis with great skill so far.In addition,we sold Artemis European Growth,whose investment process seems recently to have broken down,to be replaced with Neptune European Opportunities.We also made several changes to the Fund's asset allocation. We locked in relative profits by cutting our US and Japanese weightings following their currencies' rallies and topped up Asian equities, which we largely avoided through their stone-like drop of the last year. As long-term investors, we now think there is tremendous value to be had in this region, particularly as it will be benefit from plummeting commodity prices.

Fund Details