City A.M. Awards 2022: Investor of the Year
The City is back, and so are the City A.M. Awards, recognising the best of the Square Mile, Canary Wharf and London’s business community – which has shown shown resilience, innovation and adaptability like never before over the past year. We’re delighted to host what will be a wonderful celebration of the capital’s rebound, but we need your nominations to do it. After months of uncertainty, it’s time to look forward – and say well done to those who came to the fore in the most difficult of circumstances.
Fortune favours the brave
It has not been a straightforward year for the investment sector, with global uncertainty priced in but the implications of that uncertainty murkier than ever. Despite that there were a host of star performers delivering for their investors, from City grandees to others taking a new approach to sustainability.
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Simon Gergel, Allianz
It was another benchmark-beating year for Gergel’s Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund with Gergel’s value-driven approach continuing to return handsomely. Gergel’s other vehicle, the Merchants Trust, saw a very handsome 38 per cent jump in share price in 2021, with a shift to Rio Tinto paying off as well as old reliables like Next doing the business for investors.
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Tim Guinness, Guinness Asset Management
A money-management grandee, funds across Guinness outperformed benchmarks last year. But two energy funds – TB Guinness Global Energy and Guinness Global Energy – both returned more than 40 per cent in 2021 alone.
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Mark Slater, Slater Investments
The Slater Recovery fund has been an investors’ best friends over a number of years, returning 140.2 per cent over five years – and falling far less than the market in the bad times across that stretch. Slater’s growth fund enjoyed a 29 per cent return in 2021, driven by strong performance from Future and Liontrust amongst others.
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Terry Smith, Fundsmith
Smith’s withering attack on Unilever over the purpose (or otherwise) of Hellmann’s mayonnaise made many a City watcher chortle and also started a healthy debate on the value of ESG. Fundsmith’s equity fund returned 22.1 per cent in 2021, sticking to Smith’s timehonoured recipe of resilient growth companies and “no nonsense.”
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James Sym, River and Mercantile
Not many ESG fund managers have holdings in Airbus but Sym is determined to show that going green means engagement with firms that most environmentalists wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. Sym’s contrarian approach has returned above benchmarks and delivered over 20 per cent last year.
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