Skandia Investment Group’s UK Strategic Best Ideas fund has recorded its highest ever net market exposure as underlying managers’ continue to have faith in UK companies.

The new record, reached at the end of last week, means that the GBP63m fund currently has only five short positions in the entire portfolio.

The fund’s biggest position (4.77 per cent) is currently in Lloyds Banking Group, which is also the biggest active bet in the 60-stock portfolio.
 
Launched in September 2007, Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas is a multi-manager fund that aims to provide long term total return through investment in predominantly UK securities. The fund invests in the ten best ideas of a number of managers from different investment houses, giving up to 80 stocks in total.
 
The fund is currently managed by eight UK based long/short equity managers: Paul Casson of Henderson, Richard Plackett of BlackRock, Tim Steer of Artemis, Phil Hardy of Polar Capital, Mark Lyttleton of BlackRock, Colin McLean of SVM, Ben Wallace, Gartmore and  Julius Lipner of Aviva Investors, who joined the fund in October this year.
 
Each manager is able to short up to 50 per cent of his portfolio, or go long up to 100 per cent dependent on market views. Managers are chosen for their expertise in different areas of the UK market and all have experience of hedge products.
 
Ryan Hughes, senior portfolio manager at SIG, says: “The nature and makeup of the fund means that its market exposure is a great indicator as to the genuine confidence the underlying managers have in the market and individual stocks. With currently only five short positions across the entire portfolio that confidence is arguably higher now than any time since the fund’s launch in September 2007 and it is encouraging to see the managers looking to take full advantage of that for investors.”